


bet on it

by compendiary



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brooklyn Nine-Nine AU, Drama & Romance, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-02 01:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 46,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17255156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/compendiary/pseuds/compendiary
Summary: mark lee doesn’t understand why newcomer detective wong yukhei is praised like a god at their precinct while he’s still treated like a rookie by his colleagues. mark challenges yukhei to a bet to determine who the better detective is by comparing their respective arrest counts at the end of the year, but he gets more than he bargained for along the way.alternatively, a brooklyn nine-nine au wherein a bet brings yukhei and mark together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is inspired by the tv show brooklyn nine-nine. most, if not all, of my knowledge on law enforcement comes from the show so please excuse any mistakes! enjoy.

Mark Lee is neither the type to get worked up over jealousy nor is he the type of person who holds grudges. He has a rather even personality, evidenced by how he takes all kinds of shit from his superiors without a word, but _oh my God_ does this one Wong Yukhei find ways to get under his skin.

Mark gives everyone a second chance, he really does. He knows that first impressions aren’t always accurate, so he’s always willing to reconsider his initial opinion of someone’s personality after getting to know them better. In the case of Yukhei, he’s decided that his first impression was incredibly precise—his subsequent contemplation of the man hasn’t done much to change how he feels about him.

Wong Yukhei has been on the force for close to two months, easily taking over Mark’s title of “rookie”—except he _doesn’t_. He’s the newest member on the team and should rightfully be thrown the baton for running trivial errands and taking the brunt of the boring office work, but it’s not what happens. Mark is still referred to as the rookie of the team, even though his career and position is neck-on-neck with Yukhei’s.

They’re even the same age, so if anyone has to be lowest in the hierarchy, it should be Yukhei.

Mark spent his last year in Seoul’s 127th Precinct while Yukhei’s only been here _two months_. Yukhei is his junior and that’s that.

“Wong Yukhei?” The precinct’s captain, Johnny Seo, had repeated when Mark mentioned that to him. “Come on, Mark. You know all this rookie talk is a joke, right? Yukhei’s case closure record is flawless, I couldn’t possibly call him a rookie.”

Mark knows for a fact that his case closure rate for the past year has been perfect, too. He closed all 67 cases that he was assigned and most of them were even cases that he worked on alone. He’s been handling most of his cases solo, even finishing the reports and filing them in record time. Yukhei may have 12 more felon arrests under his belt (not that Mark went and checked) but Mark’s a star himself.

There’s been an unsaid wager going on between the two of them ever since Yukhei’s arrival. It’s not like they’re rivals—oh no, they’re not. There’s no competition in that aspect because Mark’s definitely the better detective between them. He actually submits his paperwork on time and he follows every regulation down to the last letter. Yukhei, on the other hand, utilises unorthodox means to crack his cases and Mark’s pretty sure that he’s used unlawful methods to get his suspects talking.

No one’s really keeping track of how many arrests they’ve both made for the last two months but Mark’s been ahead of the race with four more than Yukhei so far. Not that Mark’s counting. He really isn’t.

Jung Jaehyun called him petty when he offhandedly pointed it out last week, but Mark’s just trying to be systematic about his career record. He’s not comparing himself to Yukhei in any way at all. They’re two detectives with completely different approaches, except Mark’s work ethic is way better.

Back to Mark’s impression of Yukhei—as far as appearances go, Yukhei is handsome. That’s a well-established fact. Mark isn’t blind to how Yukhei’s height gives him the golden proportions of a model and how Yukhei’s face looks like it was carved by angels (Johnny’s words, not Mark’s). Yukhei has huge, expressive brown eyes and this really nice, straight nose, framed by a pair of pouty lips.

Objectively, Yukhei is gorgeous.

Subjectively… Yukhei is good looking. That’s about all Mark is going to let slip from his mouth regarding the matter.

In terms of Yukhei’s abilities as a detective, Mark has a lot that he’d like to put up for discussion if only people were willing to listen. Yukhei is brash, loud-mouthed, and sloppy when it comes to paperwork. He might look like Prince Charming come to life but his rationale is warped and he seems to only be doing this job for the thrill of it.

Yukhei jumps at every opportunity to enter the field but half-heartedly writes up his case reports. Mark’s only ever seen him show any kind of enthusiasm whenever he has a gun in his holster while practically _begging_ to be assigned to stakeouts. Yukhei acts like it’s torture whenever he’s cooped up within the four walls of the precinct because the other detectives were assigned the available cases.

Plus, there have been rumours floating around regarding Yukhei’s swift transfer from Precinct 116, which happens to be one of the best performing stations in the nation currently. Yukhei was the ‘ace’ detective there on top of being the youngest and there were supposedly talks considering him for a promotion. Regardless, Yukhei applied (or so they say) for a transfer here, which is basically self-sabotage if one were to ask Mark.

There’s no way that Yukhei would voluntarily start over anew in a whole other precinct unless he has something to run from in Precinct 116.

Thus Mark thinks Yukhei is shady, irresponsible, and he doesn’t deserve the coddling the rest of the detectives in the precinct give him just because he’s supposedly a _star_. They all act like Yukhei’s detective royalty just because he broke the record for most arrests in a year since the record was established in 1984.

Mark would probably be able to do it too if Precinct 127 had as many cases to handle as Precinct 116.

However, all in all, this is _not_ jealousy or envy. Mark’s displeasure with Yukhei’s presence mostly boils down to the fact that he doesn’t deserve the credit that he’s given. His status as an asset to the precinct is overrated and everyone should treat him the way that they treat Mark.

Mark’s still told to do coffee runs every once in awhile and he’s even had to get coffee for _Yukhei_ once. Mark’s unofficial  _junior_ had the nerve to make an order for an iced caramel macchiato without an ounce of shame or guilt on his face, not even a “sorry” tacked onto the end of his sentence.

That happened almost three weeks ago and Mark’s still bitter about it.

Mark may be the youngest on the team, but he doubts that the rest of them know that because Mark’s barely a few months younger than Yukhei who was born in January. They agreed to be friendly with each other so the age hierarchy system shouldn’t apply. The senior detectives just like to pick on Mark because they see him as the little brother they love to tease.

Mark’s still waiting for the day when someone— _anyone_ —will wake up and realise that Yukhei technically holds an equal rank to Mark’s. He’s not even as impressive as they all try to make him seem.

Like Mark mentioned previously, Yukhei’s arrests tally stands at four lesser than Mark’s from last week—

“That makes 26!” Yukhei announces happily as he pushes past the double doors with one of his hands, holding a man in handcuffs by the shoulders.

This effectively shakes Mark out of his internal “Why’s Yukhei so special, anyway?" monologue. Mark gapes as he stares down at the sticky note plastered on his desk. “ _M: 25, Y: 21_ ” it reads. He blinks, realising that he hasn’t been assigned to any cases in the past three days because he’s been reorganising files with Chittaphon “Ten” Leechaiyapornkul, Johnny’s secretary and assistant.

If what Yukhei said is what Mark thinks he said, that means Yukhei is ahead of the count.

Yukhei smugly pushes his felon towards the uniformed officers who escort the man into one of the cells for holding. “26 arrests so far for Xuxi, the unsung hero of Precinct 127!” Yukhei singsongs, referring to himself with his name in Mandarin.

His name sounds rather cute in Mandarin, that Mark will give him. But the unsung hero of the precinct? _Please_. Everyone knows that Yukhei is an _overrated celebrity_ in the detective world. Mark watches as some of the detectives walk over to clap Yukhei on the back, congratulating him for making two arrests today.

Mark’s ready to strangle Ten for roping him into administrative work when he could’ve been out in the field, maintaining his lead in this unspoken race. Now he’s one arrest behind Yukhei and that knowledge is gnawing at the edge of his mind, threatening to drive him crazy.

Mark’s not going to get much sleep tonight, he can already tell that he’s not going to sleep well if he’s losing.

“How’s the day going for you, Mark?” Yukhei asks as he approaches, sauntering smoothly towards Mark’s desk where two large stacks of folders are set down. Yukhei lets Mark’s name roll off his tongue exaggeratedly as he smirks with mirth.

Mark wants to wipe that smirk off his pretty little face. “It’s going… good,” Mark replies, trying to hide how uncomfortable he feels about losing to Yukhei.

“I missed you out there today,” Yukhei says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a cola-flavoured lollipop. He sets it onto one of the stacks of paperwork. “That’s for you. You like cola, don’t you?”

Mark snorts. “If this is consolation for what you think is _me_ losing to _you_ , you should know that I won’t be handling filing forever.”

Yukhei retracts his hand slowly, his expression becoming one of puzzlement as his eyebrows knit together. “What?”

“I said…” Mark trails off, taking a deep breath instead. _Be the bigger person, Mark_. “Nothing. I said nothing.”

“Uh, okay.”

Mark snatches the lollipop from the top of the papers, roughly pinching at the wrapper in an effort to rip it off in his frustration. He ignores the way Yukhei continues to look at him incredulously as he does so.

Yukhei reaches over and gently takes the lollipop from Mark’s hands, unwrapping it in one attempt with his long fingers. “There.” He offers the lollipop to Mark, smiling when Mark quickly swipes it from him with a mumbled “thank you”. “I won’t bother you anymore, I guess. See ya, Mark.”

Mark huffs. “Yeah, whatever.”

Mark doesn’t look to see where Yukhei goes and he sucks on his lollipop angrily as he flips through the file in his hands.

“Harsh, much?” Ten comments as he slides his chair over from his desk towards Mark. “Xuxi’s such a sweetheart and you’re always being so cold to him. That’s not going to help your boner go down, Mark.”

Mark turns to glare at Ten, who flinches in response. “You’re one to talk. If you’d do your job, we wouldn’t be in this situation because I’d still have the upper hand.”

“Are you really still competing with Xuxi in your head?”

Mark rolls his eyes, snapping the file shut. “Oh my God, Ten, just leave me alone. I want to get this shit done by tonight so I can start taking cases by tomorrow, okay?” Mark says, exasperated. “Do you have any other favours that you want to cash in? Do you want a coffee from the pantry? Doughnuts from Krispy Kreme? A fucking pedicure?”

“Actually, a coffee does sound quite ni—”

“For fuck’s sake, I was being sarcastic!”

Ten holds up both his hands in surrender. “Whatever, drama queen. They say that I’m the crazy one in the precinct but look at you,” he laughs and it sounds more like a cackle. “You’re doing amazing, Markiepoo. Thank you and I love you.”

Mark wants to open his mouth to tell Ten to leave him alone again when the latter leans over in his swivel chair to give Mark a quick peck on the cheek before speeding off in the other direction back towards his own desk. “What the fuck,” Mark mumbles under his breath as he licks around the cola-flavoured candy in mouth.

Lollipops are supposed to taste sweet but this one in particular tastes bitter.

Mark works twice as hard that day, making sure that the files are put away in an orderly manner by the end of the night. He’s going to make sure he cracks at least one case tomorrow if it’s the last thing he does in this lifetime.

Yukhei’s not going to be the top dog forever and that’s fact.

 

* * *

 

Mark reminds himself again and again that he’s not the kind of man who will badmouth someone else without valid reason. He’s not a gossipmonger by any means, on the contrary, he _hates_ discussing matters concerning others because he doesn’t like the thought of betraying someone else’s trust, whether the trust is explicitly stated or not. However, all of Mark’s logic and reasoning can go fuck itself when it comes to talking about Yukhei.

Mark will talk about Yukhei to any and everyone who will listen.

In this case, the pitiful victim is Lee Taeyong, who is the sergeant of the precinct, but somehow doesn’t act like one because he’s friendly and informal about most matters. He lends a listening ear to all the detectives in the squad regardless of the topic and he’s basically the next best alternative to attending therapy.

Mark has been unloading his displeasure with Yukhei onto Taeyong for as long as he can remember. Taeyong happens to be quite friendly with Yukhei, having unofficially “adopted” the latter, but Mark was Taeyong’s very first “son” so there’s no reason why Taeyong wouldn’t listen if Mark were to complain about Yukhei to him.

Taeyong has tried to chalk Mark’s impression of Yukhei down to prejudice, but Mark knows that it’s not quite it.

“Have you ever, and I’m saying _ever_ , heard me talk shit about anyone here?” Mark half-yells and half-whines. It’s a strangled sound, coming off as pathetic even to his own ears. “On my first day here, Jaehyun offered me hand cream that was actually Greek yoghurt and called it _hazing_.”

“You have to admit that it was kind of funny. You were rubbing your hands together and when the white cast wouldn’t disappear you asked, ‘Am I too moisturised or what?’”

“Shut up!” Mark snaps without heat, slapping Taeyong’s shoulder. “Also, remember when Yuta sabotaged me so he could work with Sicheng from 116? I barely even breathed a word about it.”

Yuta Nakamoto takes this as the perfect timing to step in, his ears perking up from having heard his name said in passing. “What? What did I do this time?” he asks, a paper cup filled to the brim with coffee held tightly in his hand. “If this is about the gum under your desk, Taeyong, I had nothing to do with it.”

Mark watches as Taeyong’s jaw falls open to speak, but he ultimately decides against it and sighs. “Great, now I’m going to have to look under my desk,” Taeyong mutters dejectedly, popping a chocolate-covered almond into his mouth.

The pantry is the common place of common places in the station. Heck, every room is a common place because there are members of the team everywhere—it’s practically impossible to find a corner of the precinct uninhabited. Someone’s always somewhere and that doesn’t even exclude the toilets. Mark always thinks that he’s the only one there only to hear flushing come out of one of the cubicles.

The pantry is a place where he expects people, though, so it’s less harrowing to be spoken to here. The endless supply of food and snacks (haphazardly left by every single member of the squad like a potluck) is a plus.

Mark knew that he shouldn’t have been talking in such an open space if he didn’t want to be caught, anyway. Yuta’s intrusion is the least of his worries.

“Mark’s whining about Yukhei again,” Taeyong replies after awhile, likely having recalled Yuta’s question from earlier. This earns him a loud smack from Mark. “What? You were.”

There is an unsaid swear of secrecy that Mark expects from Taeyong so it’s surprising that Taeyong immediately volunteered this key piece of information Yuta’s way. Yuta is one of the strongest supporters of Yukhei’s reign that this precinct has seen, so Mark mentally prepares himself for the battle ahead.

“Mark? Complaining about _Yukhei_?” Yuta asks. The offence rolls off his tongue like venom, as if it’s impossible that someone could ever think negatively of the station’s prince.

“Again?” comes another voice from the door, and lo and behold, it’s Yukhei himself.

Mark glances at his wristwatch, noting that it’s the time of the day when everyone starts getting peckish and begins to flock into the pantry for midday snacks. More people are bound to follow behind Yukhei and his expectation is met when he sees three or four men attempt to squeeze into the room with Yukhei’s frame blocking the entrance.

Yuta scoffs loudly, ripping open a bag of Cheetos lying on the couch not far from where Taeyong and Mark are seated at the dining table. “Yeah,” Yuta supplies, popping two or three pieces of the snack into his mouth and crunching carelessly. “ _Mark_ ’s complaining about _you_.”

“What did I do this time?” Yukhei asks, echoing Yuta’s question uttered just a few minutes ago. “I’ve been a good boy!”

“He has,” Jaehyun agrees, strolling in alongside their fellow detectives Moon Taeil and Kim Doyoung, both of whom look equally as confused that Mark’s upset with Yukhei. “Yukhei’s been the best boy around. Haven’t you, Xuxi?”

Yukhei doesn’t look pleased to have Jaehyun speaking to him like a dog. “I impersonated a puppy _one time_ ,” he hisses, swiping some Cheetos from Yuta. “Anyway, Mark. What’s up, buttercup? Did I do something?” Yukhei is addressing him directly now and that makes Mark sweat.

Just a little bit. Mark’s not going to let it show but he feels himself squirm in his seat slightly.

Taeyong takes it up to himself to answer. “Your little competition is really upsetting him,” he says to Yukhei, adopting a slightly more authoritative tone than usual. “Whatever this contest is that you two have going on, it’s really killing the morale in the station. You’re both great detectives, there’s no need to act like _children_ because you want to one-up the other person.”

“I’m not being _childish_ ,” Mark argues, but Taeyong shushes him by pulling him towards his chest by the shoulders. “Let me go, Taeyong.”

“Hush, my baby. We both know that you’re unhappy.”

Mark can’t see Yukhei’s reaction because his face is buried in the material of Taeyong’s shirt, the soft silk muffling his threats for Taeyong to set him free.

There’s never been an outright announcement of a competition between the two youngest detectives on the team. It’s going to be really awkward if Yukhei expresses that he’s never seen Mark as his rival, because for one, Mark’s been vocal with expressing his annoyance whenever Yukhei gets ahead of the count, and two, Yukhei’s going to get what’s coming for him if he _dares_ to insult Mark in that manner.

In what world isn’t Mark capable of being Yukhei’s rival? Certainly not this one.

Taeyong eventually lets Mark go after whispering words of encouragement into Mark’s hair. He jumps into heated conversation with Yuta and Jaehyun about a new series showing on Netflix directly after he releases Mark, leaving Mark to look around slowly to process the mess of a situation that’s unravelling in the pantry.

Mark’s eyes land on Yukhei, who has now taken a seat comfortably next to Mark at the table. Yukhei has his gaze trained on him intently, and Mark deduces that he’s not going to look away any time soon. “What?” Mark asks haughtily, reaching forward for an opened pack of Sour Patch Kids.

Yukhei helpfully pushes it towards him. Damn him and his freakishly long limbs. “They said you were talking about me,” he starts, tilting his head to one side.

“And what if I was?”

Yukhei laughs quietly, plucking the piece of candy from between Mark’s fingers as Mark is about to lift it to his lips.

Mark almost snarls at him.

“Taeyong mentioned that you’re upset with me because of a… _competition_?” The word hangs heavily in the air after Yukhei says it.

Mark feels the room quiet down as everyone turns to watch their exchange, clearly intrigued by what’s bubbling underneath the surface. “Don’t act coy,” Mark says icily, retrieving another piece of candy that he makes sure Yukhei can’t steal this time. “You’ve been keeping count too. Every time you surpass my arrests you make sure to announce it at the door.”

“Maybe I have,” Yukhei admits. He winces briefly when the sour candy hits his tongue. “And I think it’s best that you learn that I’m three ahead right now, and counting.”

Mark truly snarls now. “Oh yeah? If Ten… what’s-his-last-name didn’t ask for a favour, maybe you’d be three _behind_ and counting!”

Ten’s voice yelling a time-out is shrill as he runs through the door, physically keeping Yukhei and Mark apart with his arms even though they weren’t close to begin with. Ten is out of breath as he speaks. “Come on, boys. Play nice. Johnny’s not going to like this.”

There’s a loud crunch that comes from Yuta as he continues devouring his bag of Cheetos. “Johnny’s not going to like this because he’s going to _love_ it,” he murmurs, soft enough for only those in the room to hear.

Taeil snickers loudly. “True.”

Johnny steps in now and all of them straighten up a bit with the arrival of the captain. “What’s up, kiddos?” Johnny greets them all with a curt nod of his head. He stands at the doorway with both hands resting of his hips as he strikes a pose. “I smell trouble.”

Ten tries, and fails, to hide the supposed conflict brewing between Yukhei and Mark. “There’s nothing to see here, _Captain Seo_ ,” he says. It makes Mark wonder if Ten is actually trying to help them or if he’s trying to set them up to be disciplined by Johnny.

No one calls Johnny “Captain Seo” unless one of the higher-ups is around. Johnny’s title holds as much of a significance to the rest of them as a can of Dr. Pepper.

The atmosphere is a little bit awkward before Johnny tells everyone to loosen up. “It’s break time! This is an informal space.”

After he says that, the room erupts into noisy chatter once more because they’ve been given the green light to horse around with no punishment in sight. Truthfully, they’re always playing around, but most of them (sans Yukhei, because he’s the devil incarnate that Johnny somehow dotes on) actually make a show of _pretending_ that they don’t.

“So, what’s happening?” Johnny asks Mark now. He raises an eyebrow. “What’s this talk about being sworn enemies with Xuxi?”

Ten nudges Johnny in the ribs, hard. “I told you that in confidence, John,” Ten hisses, glaring at his boss after for good measure.

Mark, in turn, glares at Ten. He should’ve known to keep his feelings to himself knowing what a huge gossip Ten is. Ten keeps a secret for an hour at the maximum. The only time anyone voluntarily tells Ten anything is when they want the entire precinct to know, and when they want the message to be spread _fast_.

“I’m starting a betting pool on who has the most arrests by the end of the year!” Doyoung shouts from a corner.

After that announcement, Mark hears choruses of “$50 on Yukhei!” followed by Taeyong’s quiet, “$50 on Mark and… $50 on Yukhei.”

“You can’t bet on us both,” Mark exclaims, whipping his head over to stare at Taeyong in disgust. He’s offended and he’s not going to hide it. “It’s either you believe in me or you don’t.”

“Honey, I’m just protecting my financial interests. You’re not going to get any support if I don’t bet on you.”

Mark groans. “You guys are wrong. I was ahead of the game until Ten roped me into doing his dirty work! I swear. You’re going to regret not betting on me.”

Yukhei finally speaks up, standing up to rest an arm over Johnny’s shoulders. “What do you think, boss?” he asks Johnny, passing him a gummy snake that he knows is Johnny’s favourite. “We’re all aware of my perfect case closure rate, right? I’m not one to brag, but…”

Johnny hums, biting off the tail of his gummy. “I’m not going to say anything. I shouldn’t get involved in personal matters.” He clears his throat. “But off the record, I’d put my money on Xuxi. He closed a fucking case from his desk today. Like, who does that? Only gods, maybe.”

Yukhei gives him a fist bump of appreciation.

“Why don’t we challenge each other for real, then?” Mark suggests from his seat, keeping his gaze steely as he looks up at Yukhei. “Let’s make a bet.”

Yukhei’s face lights up. “Really?” he asks, holding his hand out for Mark to shake in agreement. “Let’s do it.”

Mark takes Yukhei’s calloused palm in his and he makes sure his grip is tighter than Yukhei’s when they exchange a handshake. “Since I suggested it, if I win, I want…” he tries to think of something that Yukhei holds especially dear to him.

There’s Yukhei’s desk, which is situated in a rather strategic location not far from the pantry and locker rooms, but the condition of the desk leaves much to be desired. Yukhei keeps scraps of food in his drawers and there have been complaints of termites hiding in between the cracks of the table, so maybe swapping desks with Yukhei isn’t the smartest thing to do.

Then there’s Yukhei’s gun, but their guns are registered under each of their names for identification purposes, so Mark couldn’t ask for it even if he wanted to.

Lastly, Yukhei has a car. It’s a flashy drive for a rookie detective—a black Audi A5 Sportback with tinted windows. Yukhei comes from a background of money and rumour has it that the car was his 21st birthday gift from his parents. He’s kept it in near-perfect condition even though the car’s almost three years old now. It’s a known fact that Yukhei’s the type of guy who jokes about his car being his wife.

Mark can’t wait to see the look on Yukhei’s face when he pries the keys to the car out of Yukhei’s cold, dead hands.

“I want the Audi,” Mark states without emotion.

There’s an audible gasp that comes from Yuta.

Yukhei, on the other hand, only lets his surprise show on his face. There’s a brief widening of his eyes and Yukhei’s lips part slightly, but he composes himself and shrugs. “Deal,” Yukhei agrees.

“No!” Yuta argues on his behalf. “How could you, Xuxi? That car is 90% of the reason why people even want to sleep with you. Why would you give such a valuable asset up?”

Silence befalls the room as everyone settles into contemplation.

Mark doesn’t even know where to begin to explain how wrong Yuta is. Is he _seeing_ Yukhei? The Audi is an added bonus, surely. Not saying that Mark would ever think of going near Yukhei’s privates, but if he were to be a stranger that Yukhei were to proposition, the car would be the last thing on his mind.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Taeyong whispers to Yuta, pursing his lips after. “The car’s… not… never mind.”

“It’s cool, I’ll put my car on the line,” Yukhei interrupts to say. “I’m not going to lose anyway. But Mark… you should think carefully about what you’re going to bet. You’re playing a losing game here. Don’t bet something you’re not willing to lose.”

Mark snorts in contempt. “I’m confident about winning too. Name your price. What do you want?”

Yukhei considers this for a moment. “What’s your biggest fear?”

Mark presses his lips together as he thinks. There are a few things that he’s rather afraid of, among them being failure, the inability to succeed, and, well, _losing_. He’s not about to say that out loud, though. “My biggest fear?” Mark repeats, smiling without sincerity. “I fear becoming one of the brainwashed zombies worshipping the ground you walk on.”

It’s a low blow aimed at everyone in the room and he hears some of them protest weakly.

“Whoa,” Ten, who has mostly been silent up to this point, remarks. “Good one, Markie Mark.”

“That’s no good for the bet, though,” Johnny points out, scratching the back of his head. “There’s no tangibility in that.”

“I know! If Mark loses, he has to go on a date with Xuxi in the Audi. We stop the count at the end of the year, so we’ll close the year with either a bonfire party or a date.”

Mark pales at that suggestion. “What?”

He’s about to open his mouth to argue when Yukhei laughs. Yukhei actually laughs. “There’s nothing to worry about if you’re so confident,” he mocks, picking up the bag of Sour Patch Kids to search for a red piece. “Are you afraid that you’re going to lose?”

“No, you’re _on_ ,” Mark sneers, narrowing his eyes at Yukhei who still has an infuriating smirk plastered on his face.

“Then it’s settled!” Taeyong announces, standing up and shooing everyone outside. “Can all of you get to work? There are civilians running in the streets in fear as we speak!”

Just as Mark is about to take his leave too, Yukhei leans over and passes Mark an orange Sour Patch Kid. “I hope you don’t expect me to put out on the first date,” he teases, bursting out into laughter once more when Mark only flinches from him in disgust.

“I hope you’re ready to come to work on foot,” Mark shoots back, but it’s a weaker comeback than he expected.

Well, whatever. He’ll work on his insults next time.

Mark can’t escape the pantry quick enough without Yukhei’s grin engraving itself into the back of his mind, ruining the rest of his day at work because he can’t stop thinking about it.

Mark is going to win this stupid bet if it’s the last thing he does. Even if it costs him his life.

 

* * *

 

And costs him his life it does. The bet starts to consume every fibre of Mark’s being until he’s only alive and functioning because of it—he wakes up only for the sake of seeing this through and he lets caffeine flow through his veins to power himself through the day. All in hopes that he’ll be able to pummel Yukhei into the ground, ego and everything.

It starts off smoothly enough. Mark gets a nice number of arrests to close his first week, only to realise that Yukhei has the _exact same amount_. The next few weeks are the same. Yukhei somehow matches Mark’s number regardless of what it is.

There’s a whole official score board displayed in the middle of the precinct. There’s no way that Yukhei is cheating because everyone’s keeping score. It’s ridiculous how Yukhei isn’t _losing_ because Mark’s been working twice as hard.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and so Mark resorts to asking for favours from the other detectives. In hindsight, this idea is terrible. It’s one of the worst ideas Mark has ever had, only second to starting this stupid bet with Yukhei. His favours open up a floodgate for everyone in the precinct to abuse him—figuratively or not.

Mark offers to help the other detectives with their dreaded paperwork as long as they let him tag along whenever they’re assigned cases. It’s not an exaggeration to say that _everyone_ agrees because typing up the case reports at the end of the day is literally the worst part of the job. Mark’s sacrifice means that everyone else gets to enjoy their work without having to suffer in an uncomfortable swivel chair for the remainder of their office hours.

Mark, however, is the poor bastard who has to do exactly that.

Jaehyun is especially willing to take Mark along whenever he’s due to enter the field. “Wanna come with?” is Jaehyun’s easy invitation to Mark, as he feels around his waistband to make sure that his gun is in place in its holster.

Mark, being all too eager to get his arrest count up, always complies.

“Don’t work yourself to death, Marcus,” will be Jaehyun’s bid of goodbye to Mark at the end of the day after he passes his case files over for Mark to complete. He at least has the decency to look guilty about it, but Mark’s not angry at him because he kind of asked for it.

It’s the little bit Mark has to give in order to take what he deserves. The win that will finally cement his place as Yukhei’s senior in this God forsaken precinct.

Johnny is not too happy about Mark working overtime in order to finish up not only his own, but Taeil’s, Jaehyun’s, and sometimes even Yuta’s case reports. Johnny chides Mark about the cons of missing out on a social life when their job is already burdensome enough. “You’re hot and young, Mark, why do this to yourself?” Johnny will ask almost every other night.

“I’ll rest when evil is defeated,” Mark will say right back.

The both of them—Johnny and Mark—will then turn to look in the direction of Yukhei’s desk, where Yukhei is often seen slouching over his computer, his eyebrows knit together in concentration as he scrolls through a Reddit forum.

To be fair, Yukhei doesn’t need to stay after hours. He usually has his case reports done by the end of his shift because he hasn’t been taking the brunt of the others’ work to keep up with his arrest count. Johnny’s asked him about it before passing over the night shift to the next captain, but Yukhei always said that he likes the smooth WiFi connection in the station.

Yukhei must live in a sewer dump because the WiFi here is absolute bullshit.

“You want me to make you a coffee before I go?” Johnny asks as he pats Mark on the back, having packed up to leave for the night. “Want a Twinkie? Some candy?”

Mark shakes his head. “No, I’m good, Cap.”

Johnny smiles his signature Johnny-smile, one that’s only reserved for members of the squad who are seriously making him proud at the moment. It makes Mark feel special. “Don’t dig yourself an early grave, Mark,” Johnny says once more before he goes.

Mark sighs, slumping over his desk the moment Johnny steps out the door. The rest of his squad from the morning shift left long ago, leaving Mark with two unfinished case reports that require dire attention. He took up two extra cases with Jaehyun earlier.

Mark glances over at the scoreboard set in the middle of the station. “ _(God) Yukhei: 34, Mark: 35_ ” is displayed on the top corner of the whiteboard with multiple slashes across the numbers before it reaches their current count.

Ten appointed himself as the unofficial keeper of the numbers, happily putting aside the actual workload Johnny passed on to him.

“How many more cases do you have?” Mark hears a deep voice ask from behind him before a man is invading his personal space, looming over him to look at the files on his desk. It’s Yukhei.

Mark sits up immediately, his shoulder bumping against Yukhei’s chest and surprising the latter. “What are you doing here?”

Yukhei wasn’t at his desk the last time Mark took a peep in that direction. Mark did it out of curiosity to scope out the competition, not out of genuine interest. It’s close to 8pm now anyway, so if Yukhei were any other sane person, he’d have left at least two hours ago.

Alas, Yukhei is very much here.

“I work here,” Yukhei replies easily, giving Mark a look that screams _duh_.

“Yeah, but you’re not supposed to be here anymore. You’re supposed to be home.”

“Why can’t I be here when you’re here?”

Mark feels his facial features scrunch up in confusion. What? It might be the sleep deprivation clouding his thought processes, but he’s not sure about what they’re talking about anymore.

“I asked how many cases you have left,” Yukhei repeats himself, crossing his arms slowly. Mark sees the lean muscles of his arms flex under the material of his button-up shirt.

Mark swallows. “Two.”

Yukhei nods, turning to walk towards the pantry, but not before saying, “I’ll drive you home after you’re done.”

Mark gapes at him. “What? I drove here, I can get home by myself.”

Yukhei doesn’t seem to hear him and continues to walk into the pantry for whatever reason.

Looking back at the opened files on his desk, Mark gets back to work. His computer is an old Windows PC that runs about as quickly as his grandma. Thankfully, typing up documents doesn’t take up too much RAM, but Mark can only do one thing at once instead of procrastinate with a YouTube video or two.

He wants to finish up quickly today and hopefully get a better night’s sleep, so he shuts the Internet browsing windows and focuses on his task.

There’s a thud at the edge of his desk and Mark looks to the corner to see a mug with freshly brewed coffee in it. It’s his mug, too, so it’s undoubtedly meant for him.

“Drink up,” Yukhei says to him, gently. “Before you make a big deal out of it, I put some Baileys in there so it’s a little boozy. It should give you a good boost, though.”

“I can’t drink on the job.”

“It’s after hours,” Yukhei states as a matter of fact. He has a protein shake in his hands. “I’ll drive you home after, so no worries about breaking any traffic laws.” He reaches over to take one of the closed folders from Mark.

“Hey, that’s confidential,” Mark protests, not motioning to get the file back from Yukhei. He picks up the mug of coffee and takes a long sip. He’s had at least five servings of coffee today.

Yukhei takes it to his desk. “I’ll finish it for you.”

“That’s not going to add it to your count, you know.”

Yukhei laughs, setting himself down into his workspace and cracking his knuckles. “I don’t need it.”

They work in silence after that and Mark, being the perfectionist he is, checks over Yukhei’s work to make sure it’s up to his own standards. It is, surprisingly. He’s read a few files with Yukhei’s notes in them and they’ve always read like they were hastily written, but Yukhei’s work in this file is rather immaculate.

Mark didn’t even know that Yukhei paid enough attention to others’ cases to be able to write their reports so accurately.

After putting the files on Ten’s desk for him to sort out the next morning, Mark throws on his sweater and pulls out his car keys. He yawns, readying himself for the short drive to his apartment as he runs on three hours of sleep from the night before.

It’s barely 10.30pm now, so if he cleans up quickly enough he’ll probably get at least six hours’ worth of sleep tonight.

“Let’s go,” Yukhei says as he falls into pace alongside Mark, bumping his shoulder against Mark’s. “I’ll drive you.”

“I think I’m good to drive,” Mark argues lightly, unable to stifle another yawn that creeps up on him. He yawns as he speaks. “There wasn’t much alcohol in the coffee.”

“Yeah, but you look like you’ll fall asleep behind the wheel the moment you get on the road. Trust me, it happens. I’ll drive. It’s more for everyone else on the road than for you.”

Mark’s too tired to continue arguing, so he does as Yukhei tells him to.

It’s his first time riding in Yukhei’s car. The interior is surprisingly clean and much neater than Mark expected. Yukhei even has a small Thor figurine tacked onto his dashboard, the bobblehead of the figurine moving side to side as they drive along.

Mark doesn’t realise how exhausted he really is until Yukhei is gently nudging him awake. “Huh?” Mark mutters, rubbing at his eyes. “Whoa, sorry. Didn’t know I fell asleep.”

“It’s cool.” Yukhei has a hand on the steering wheel and another on the gear stick. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow since your car’s still at the station.”

“Nah,” Mark mumbles, picking up his bag. “I’ll get a lift from Taeyong. He lives, like, three blocks down. We carpool sometimes.”

Yukhei nods, his gaze following Mark’s form as Mark climbs out of the car groggily, the sleep still heavy in his system.

“Thanks for the ride, or whatever,” Mark mutters awkwardly, resting his hand on the handle of the car door. “Uh, goodnight.”

Yukhei smiles—it’s a slight tilt of his lips, followed by a tilt of his head. It’s kind of cute. Like one of those pictures of a Golden Retriever puppy looking at its owner curiously. “Goodnight, Mark,” Yukhei says, and his voice is softer than Mark has ever heard it.

Mark nods once more before shutting the door, walking towards his apartment complex. He tries to ignore how he hears the ignition of Yukhei’s car thrumming until he reaches the entrance, which is when Yukhei finally drives off.

When Mark collapses onto his bed after taking a shower and brushing his teeth, he doesn’t even have time to truly ponder how Yukhei even knows where he lives.

 

* * *

 

Mark doesn’t have much time to change his mind about Yukhei being a not-so-bad-guy-after-all because two weeks after the night Yukhei gives him a ride home, Mark learns just why Yukhei isn’t struggling to keep up with his arrest count.

Yukhei, probably having been the privileged brat his entire life, has been _bribing_ the other detectives. Okay, maybe the use of the term ‘bribe’ is an exaggeration on Mark’s end, but what Yukhei does can technically fall under that category.

Yukhei has been buying everyone at the precinct meals in exchange for their cases with the highest number of potential arrests. This, apparently, has been going on for awhile now, only not to Mark’s knowledge because Mark isn’t one of the people Yukhei needs to suck up to.

Although Mark has been receiving brown paper bags containing sandwiches and fruit juice every other morning, he always thought that the meals came from Taeyong. Not from Yukhei’s deep pockets that he uses to manipulate everyone in the station with. Mark only learnt the true origin of his quick breakfast when he thanked Taeyong that morning.

Taeyong had looked at him with a frown etched into his features. “What?”

“Thanks for breakfast,” Mark had repeated, clueless and naïve to his own ears now that he thinks about it.

“Oh,” Taeyong exclaimed. “That wasn’t me. It was Xuxi’s treat again.”

Mark was shocked, to say the least. He had a half-eaten chicken and egg sandwich in his hands that he thought came from his friend only to learn that it came from his enemy. His morning was shaping up to be a _perfect_ one.

Mark finished his sandwich anyway because food is food. Doyoung then helpfully filled him out regarding Yukhei’s recent plan of buying out everyone’s hearts.

Mark thinks that Johnny ought to hear about this.

However, when Mark knocks on Johnny’s door, he sees an identical sandwich in Johnny’s hands and he realises that this is it—he’s lost. Evil has triumphed in the precinct and there’s nothing he can do about it because Yukhei is charming and slick and everything Mark is not. Which is why Mark is still called the rookie of the team even though he’s been here four times as long as Yukhei has.

“Did you need something, Mark?” Johnny asks, chewing slowly. He’s scrolling through some documents on his computer.

Mark, knowing that he has to play his cards right now that he knows that Yukhei is no easy foe, backs down. “Nope, just checking in on my favourite captain this morning!” he says, far too enthusiastic to his own ears.

It probably sounds fake to Johnny too, because Johnny only offers him a smile that looks more like a grimace.

Mark goes back to his desk, opting to flip through his files to have a look at the cases that he’s going to be working on today. He notices Yukhei’s eyes trained on him as he walks towards the other end of the room where his desk is but he promptly ignores him in favour of making a beeline for his own space.

“Talked about anything interesting?” Yukhei asks, not one to cower in the presence of a challenge. He has a half-eaten bagel in one hand and a cup of coffee in another as he approaches Mark, looking as carefree as ever.

“Nothing as interesting as the food you’ve been bribing him with,” Mark hisses, keeping his voice low to avoid attracting attention to himself.

Yukhei guffaws. It’s loud and Mark can physically feel the noise bouncing from the walls as Yukhei laughs. This effectively attracts all the attention that Mark previously tried to avoid. “It’s called networking, Detective Lee,” he states unhelpfully. “I’m sure you found your breakfast satisfying as well.”

“It was a chicken and egg sandwich. Who doesn’t like chicken and eggs?”

“Vegans, probably.”

Mark rolls his eyes, glaring at Ten who’s watching them with bright eyes from across the room, eagerly awaiting an imminent catfight. He only looks back at Yukhei when Ten pretends to look somewhere else. “Whatever. I can’t believe you’d stoop this low to get more arrests.”

Yukhei holds a hand to his heart with the hand holding his bagel. “That’s hurtful,” he pretends to be pained. “As long as it keeps me in the lead, though, right?” Yukhei gestures vaguely to the middle of the room with his bagel.

Mark’s gaze follows in the direction Yukhei is pointing at until his eyes fall on the scoreboard. _Oh my God,_ Wong Yukhei surpassed him again. This time with three more arrests than him even though Mark’s been in the lead for the past two days with two more than Yukhei.

That means Yukhei managed to bag _five_ people since the morning began, and it’s only 9am.

Is this man Satan himself or what?

Mark takes a deep breath, shutting his eyes tight as he feels his temples throb with this newfound knowledge. “How?” Mark asks, more to himself than to Yukhei.

Yukhei lets him know anyway. “Cracked down on a heist this morning,” he supplies without any real emotion behind his words. “Just off the corner here, actually. The Citibank branch. I even cuffed most of them myself to make the whole experience more authentic.”

Mark wants to rip his hair out of his own scalp. It’s infuriating. Yukhei is infuriating. How can he take control of a bank heist before noon and still look completely put together?

There’s not one hair out of place on Yukhei’s head, and if Mark didn’t know better he wouldn’t have even guessed that Yukhei had already been out in the field. People usually sweat, people usually look disheveled, people usually show an indication that they’ve been in action—but not Yukhei. He looks fresh, clean, and he even _smells_ fresh and clean.

The world is so unfair.

“Don’t worry, Mark. I’m sure you’ll find something worthwhile to do before the day ends,” Yukhei consoles him, but it sounds more patronising than it does soothing.

If there is a God out there, and if the God doesn’t happen to be Yukhei himself, Mark hopes that Yukhei gets what’s coming for him.

“Break it up, boys,” Taeyong calls, waving a granola bar in his hands as he comes to stand in between Yukhei and Mark. “We have a long day ahead with lots of cases.”

“Yeah,” Jaehyun agrees, coming to link one of his arms with Yukhei’s to drag the latter off. “We can play with each other’s balls later. For now, let’s get to work.”

“Not… Not what I meant,” Taeyong splutters, taking a big bite of his snack. He pats Mark on the back slowly. “Are you doing okay, Mark?”

Mark hasn’t been sleeping much, granted he’s bitten off more than he can really chew with this whole bet, but he’s doing alright. He’s not at the brink of death, thankfully. He’s a little bit out of his depth, but it’s manageable. He just has to find a way to throw Yukhei off his high horse before the year ends. Simple. Mark hums an affirmative.

“If you need any help, any help at all, you know where to find me.” Taeyong ruffles the back of Mark’s hair. “I’ll pass you your case for the day later, son.”

“Mhmm, sure thing, dad.”

Taeyong giggles in response before running off.

Mark opens and closes his fists that are resting on his desk as he considers how he’s going to map out the rest of his day. He’s going to have to step his game up if he wants to get in the lead again, and it’s not going to be easy if he’s only relying on his own cases.

He peers over at Taeil in the neighbouring desk who’s idly blinking at the lit screen of his computer.

Mark sighs. He’s going to have to do a lot of work again today.

 

* * *

 

If Mark knew that Johnny would be this unhappy with his growing sense of competition when it comes to the bet with Yukhei, he probably wouldn’t have started it to begin with. This current situation is disconcerting because Johnny was one of the people who actually egged them on to start this whole thing in the first place.

Johnny is seated behind his desk, leaning back in his leather swivel chair. He has both his arms crossed and the look on his face spells out ‘serious conversation’.

Being one of the youngest captains—if not the youngest captain—in the field today doesn’t usually faze Johnny much. He does things with his own style and he doesn’t impart any form of hierarchy on his subordinates unnecessarily. In fact, Johnny is usually overly friendly with everyone at the precinct and any form of respect he receives is given voluntarily and not because he asks for it.

It’s just in Johnny’s nature to be the caring boss who gives his juniors ‘creative space’ to be themselves and to handle their work however they want to. As long as their ways are legal and somewhat ethical, Johnny doesn’t interfere.

The current look on Johnny’s face is one that Mark has only seen once ever since he started working in Precinct 127. The last time Johnny had this look on his face, it was because Ten imposed a ban on honey butter-flavoured potato chips in the precinct. Mark didn’t have much time to keep up with the story, but the ban was supposedly enforced because Johnny’s consumption of the chips was beginning to border on a strange addiction.

“Detective Lee,” Johnny starts, pursing his lips when he meets eyes with Mark. “Detective Wong.” He nods towards said man.

Yukhei is seated right next to Mark opposite Johnny. He shares a knowing look with Johnny before turning to look over at Mark. “Captain Seo,” he greets right back, looking back at Johnny to nod at him.

Mark swallows audibly.

“I’m sure the both of you know why you’ve been called here today,” Johnny continues, leaning forward to rest his hands on the surface of his desk. “But if you don’t, I gathered you here in regards to the… growing rivalry between the two of you.”

“It’s really not like that,” Mark replies, shutting up immediately when Johnny holds up a hand to stop him mid-sentence.

“I don’t care to listen to what you think it is versus what I think it is or whatever. All I know is that you’re not sleeping because you’ve been working yourself to death, Mark. You look like shit.”

Yukhei whips his head over to give Mark a once-over, his gaze falling just below Mark’s eyes. Yukhei whistles. “Whoa, he’s right. You do look like shit,” Yukhei adds unhelpfully. There’s no telling if Yukhei’s trying to bruise Mark’s ego or if he’s agreeing with Johnny for brownie points. Probably both.

Mark snorts.

“I say this as a concerned captain, detective,” Johnny adds. “Have you even been sleeping?”

“At least three hours a night, sir,” Mark responds, sitting up straighter. “I’m really not as tired as I look.”

Johnny shakes his head in disapproval. “This is unhealthy, Mark. The rest of them are heartless to let you continue to overwork yourself…” he pauses. “I’ve made my decision. The bet needs to stop.”

“What? Why?” Mark argues, blinking rapidly as he digests this information.

It’s taken him a long time to finally gain a lead on Yukhei again. If Mark was already working two times as hard in the past weeks, he’s been working three times as hard in the recent days. His count’s risen to surpass Yukhei’s by five people now, which is an amazing feat because Yukhei’s been handling at least two cases each day.

The gods are finally looking down on Mark and shining their light on him. There’s no way that this is how it ends.

“With all due respect, sir, I don’t think—” Yukhei tries to speak but he’s cut off by Johnny’s hand again.

“There’s another reason why I really need this to stop. This one’s more of a personal reason, so let’s keep it off the record,” Johnny explains, gesturing ambiguously. He looks out the glass panels of his office to catch the eyes of anyone attempting to read his lips. “Anyway, Xuxi, you need to stop buying everyone food. I’ve gained, like, five pounds.”

“What?”

“I said what I said. Stop trading food for cases. It’s wrecking my diet.”

Mark wants to laugh, but he knows better than to make Johnny revert to his ‘official’ demeanour. It’s better that Johnny stays friendly for now. “But Johnny,” Mark subtly attempts to whine. “Why don’t we come to an agreement then? You give us additional cases when you can and we stop taking the others’ cases. That way you can monitor my workload too.”

“No,” Johnny shuts Mark’s suggestion down promptly. “That’s not going to happen. Your relationship as colleagues is strained enough as it is without continuing this stupid bet.”

“Says who?” Yukhei asks, looking at Mark with his peripheral vision before flitting his gaze back to focus on Johnny. “We’ve never been closer.”

“I’ve actually never spoken to him much prior to this,” Mark concurs, wondering if he’s going crazy because it sounds like he’s supporting Yukhei. “Not that I’m agreeing with him, of course.”

Johnny massages his temples, shaking his head slightly. “I’m going to fix this for you two. Don’t worry about it. We’ll fix your friendship together.” Johnny reaches over with his hands, urging Yukhei and Mark to rest their fingers in his open palms.

When they do, Johnny places Mark’s hand over Yukhei’s.

“That’s one small hand,” Yukhei mutters lowly.

Mark pretends he can’t hear him.

“By the power vested in me, you’re both going to work together to mend whatever’s left of your relationship. You’re going to be partners for the remainder of the year,” Johnny announces, patting their stacked hands lightly. “Before you protest, this is final. My ears are deaf to your complaints.”

“You know I prefer working solo,” Yukhei grits from between his teeth. He doesn’t look angry, but he certainly looks unimpressed and annoyed with this development.

Mark withdraws his hand. “That’s… that’s crazy!”

“When your numbers tally, you’ll work together to patch things up. As friends,” Johnny explains, standing up to walk towards the door. He opens it, making a show of asking them to leave his room. “Now get to work, detectives. You’ll be getting more complicated cases now that you’re partners.”

Mark gapes at Johnny like a fish, but he does as he’s told anyway. He’s a bit too exhausted to even consider the consequences of being tied down to Yukhei in the workforce right now.

Could things be worse? Maybe, maybe not. Mark really can’t decide.

“What happened?!” Ten hurriedly inquires when Mark gets back to his desk, still shocked from Johnny’s ultimatum.

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit!” Ten snaps. “Johnny has an open door policy. He only ever shuts the door if he’s giving disciplinary action or something. What did he say to you and Yukhei?”

Mark licks his lips, unsure of how to word what just happened. “Ask Yukhei,” he firmly tells Ten, who rolls his eyes and sighs before running off to badger Yukhei instead.

The words on Mark’s computer screen suddenly look jumbled, the Korean characters twisting and turning to form psychedelic shapes instead of neat sentences. Mark ignores the concerned looks Jaehyun throws his way, instead gulping down the cold contents of the mug on his desk before flipping through an old case file to distract himself.


	2. Chapter 2

The sacrifices Mark has to make upon becoming Yukhei’s partner in detective work becomes apparent only when they’re due to work together for the first time. Johnny assigns them to a stakeout to take down a drug deal that they’ve been following for weeks now. Mark hasn’t been on a stakeout in a long time, given that he already works overtime in the daylight and that Johnny usually assigns cases like this to detectives with regular partners.

They’re meant to stay up to keep their eyes on one location that’s tipped off to them until _something_ , if anything, happens. Johnny prefers the detectives to work in pairs or teams so that they can watch out for one another and also so the monotony of waiting becomes more bearable.

In the case of Yukhei and Mark, maybe being alone would be preferable.

The atmosphere is stiff and tense because Mark doesn’t really know what to say to Yukhei yet. All this play-fighting and occasional shit-talking back at the station has put them in a rather awkward position with one another. On one hand, they’re sort of friendly, but on the other hand, they’re not exactly friends.

The term ‘friends’ is thrown around too loosely nowadays, in Mark’s humble opinion. It’s tough to decide what qualities qualify for making someone a friend. All he knows is that Yukhei isn’t really his friend.

They’re seated in Yukhei’s car—Yukhei behind the wheel and Mark in the passenger seat right next to him. The car is parked a few blocks away from the warehouse where they’re expecting a drug deal to take place sometime soon. The area is dimly lit and they’re seated in the dark interior of the car with no air-conditioning because Yukhei killed the engine after parking.

It’s been a quiet hour, or maybe a few hours, since they stopped to camp out here and so far there hasn’t been any bite to their bait. Nothing’s happening. Mark tries to stifle a yawn behind his arm, but he fails. Tragically.

“You’re tired already?” Yukhei asks, his deep voice cutting through the silence in the car. “It’s been, like, 15 minutes.”

Mark shoots him a pointed look before glancing down at his watch. Oh, it has only been 15 minutes. “I didn’t sleep very well last night,” Mark mutters, squirming in the car seat to wake himself up a bit. He looks over at Yukhei who has a small smile playing on his lips as he watches Mark’s movements. “What?”

Yukhei’s grin only spreads wider. “You can take a nap if you want. I’ll let you know if anything happens.”

“No thanks,” Mark replies. He’s not going to sleep on the job with Yukhei as his partner. He’d be insane to do that, knowing the consequences.

Yukhei’s probably plotting to murder him in his sleep, but because homicide is illegal and definitely a cause for arrest, Yukhei will probably settle for the next best thing, which is killing Mark’s career. Mark happens to treasure his career a lot more than he does his own life, so he’s not going to let that happen. Mark’s going to defend his role as a detective for as long as he lives.

Besides, why would he let Yukhei see him vulnerable?

The last time he fell asleep in Yukhei’s car was a mistake. Now that Mark is stronger and wiser, he’s not going to let Yukhei catch him in a moment of weakness again.

Mark stares out the window, determined to be the first to catch wind of any unusual movement leading to the warehouse. He hears rustling from Yukhei’s end of the car but he doesn’t turn to look.

“Here,” he hears Yukhei’s voice say, as a thermos flask is held towards him.

Mark looks at the flask, then at Yukhei, not motioning to take it from him.

Yukhei’s gaze is warm as he holds out the flask to Mark, shaking it a bit in front of Mark’s hand in an effort to get Mark to take it. He chuckles lightly when Mark finally does. “It’s coffee,” he says, reaching behind his car seat to pull out a can of Red Bull. “And I’ve got a whole box of Red Bull at the back.”

Mark watches as Yukhei puts the can of Red Bull into a cup holder. “Thanks,” he murmurs towards Yukhei, raising the thermos slowly.

The flask contains black coffee that’s barely a few degrees below boiling point. Mark almost scalds his tongue when he takes a tentative sip of it, but he holds back his yelp of surprise by biting down on his bottom lip.

Nothing seems to escape Yukhei’s line of sight, so Mark notices Yukhei’s amused expression watching him as he attempts to take another sip from the flask.

“Leave the flask uncapped for a bit, you’ll burn yourself again,” Yukhei advises gently. “Are you always that impatient?”

“Are you always this nosy?” Mark huffs. He raises his eyebrow after with a forced, tight-lipped smile to let Yukhei know that he’s joking. Mark uses his thighs to hold the thermos in place, the steam from the coffee still wafting upwards slowly.

“Only when it concerns something interesting,” Yukhei answers, reaching over towards Mark’s seat to fiddle with the glove compartment. He pulls out a couple of lollipops amongst the mess of sweets Mark spies in the compartment. “Cola or cherry?”

“Cherry.”

Yukhei unwraps the cherry-flavoured lollipop before passing it to Mark. He has incredibly deft fingers, pulling off the wrapper in one go unlike Mark’s usual struggle with the plastic. It’s almost mesmerising to watch the way Yukhei’s fingers peel the plastic covering off the candy. Yukhei works on his own lollipop after, again succeeding to unwrap it in just one attempt.

Mark can’t help but gape.

“What?” Yukhei asks, popping the lollipop into his mouth. “Have you never seen a handsome guy before?”

This makes Mark scoff. “I look in the mirror every morning, thank you very much,” he retorts, looking away and giving his lollipop a lick after. “It’s just cool how you can unwrap lollipops so quickly.”

Yukhei laughs. “Really? I always wanted to put that under my skills in my résumé, but the careers advisor in college said that it’d be unprofessional.”

“Do you even have other skills to include in your cover letter?”

“Wow, rude,” Yukhei exclaims. “I speak like, five languages, and I have _this_ face so I’m talented at plenty, for your information. I’m also an amazing communicator, so there’s that. I made Johnny realise the true origin of his position at the precinct.”

Mark raises an eyebrow, intrigued. Johnny’s position? There’s a story behind that? That’s something Mark has time to listen to tonight. “Johnny has an origin story?”

Yukhei taps a finger to his chin contemplatively. “Hmm, I’m not sure if I can say…” he trails off, obviously trying to make Mark ask for more information.

“Just tell me,” Mark urges.

“Well, there’s not much of a story to tell,” Yukhei clarifies. “It’s very short. We just discussed it briefly on my first day at the precinct.”

Mark nods. “I’m following.”

“So, it was my first day, right? And Johnny’s the captain, so I reported to him. He’s really young, so I couldn’t hide my surprise when I met him. He has such a dad vibe going on, though…” Yukhei takes his lollipop out of his mouth, looking into the distance as if in deep thought. “Anyway, I jokingly asked him how he managed to make captain at his age.”

“You _what_?”

“I just asked. Politely, I must add.”

Mark shakes his head. “I’d never dream of it.”

Johnny is their superior, regardless of his young age, and it’s surprising that Yukhei had the courage to ask him something like this. The question has undeniably crossed Mark’s mind once upon a time, but Mark thought it was just another thing that he’d never learn the story to.

He wonders what Yukhei eats for breakfast because this guy is _ballsy_.

“Someone had to, otherwise you wouldn’t be hearing this story!” Yukhei defends himself. He waves the issue away. “Johnny said, ‘I got a perfect score on my qualification test and graduated top of my class at the police academy.’” Yukhei does an impression of Johnny that if nothing, is a poorly exaggerated version of Johnny’s manner of speaking.

It somehow makes Mark crack up, though. He can’t help the bubble of laughter that escapes between his lips as he thinks about it. Johnny sounds nothing like that but at the same time, Johnny _kind of_ sounds like that.

“I was thinking ‘bullshit!’ the entire time. I graduated top of my class too but I’m not even a sergeant yet. Johnny might’ve caught on to my thoughts because after that he joked, ‘Maybe it also helped that my dad’s the superintendent.’”

“Oh my God.”

“I know, right?” Yukhei is enthusiastically bouncing back at forth on his seat as he recalls the incident. “But Johnny tried to wave it away by saying, ‘Haha, just kidding.’ like it was literally a joke. I couldn’t help myself but repeat ‘haha’ but in the deadest tone that I could muster.”

Mark laughs, looking for the cap to the thermos so that it doesn’t spill over in his fit of laughter. “What did he say after?”

Yukhei takes the flask from him and screws on the cap, setting it into the other cup holder. “So Johnny just says, ‘What? My dad promised that my promotions had nothing to do with him.’ and he looked rather guilty about the whole thing. I said, ‘Right…’ and Johnny then broke formality and said, ‘Fuck, you’re making me question my entire career now.’”

“You made Johnny Seo question his rank?” Mark asks, entertained by the anecdote. “Tell me that’s a lie.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” Yukhei promises, holding his hand to his heart. “We’ve never spoken about it since, but maybe that’s why he likes me so much. Because I _know_.”

“I doubt that. Shouldn’t he hate you for reminding him of the role daddy played in getting him to where he is now?”

“No, I’m probably more of a reminder for him to always stay humble.”

Mark smiles, shaking his head as he imagines the exchange between Johnny and Yukhei. He wishes he was there to see it. It’s always been public knowledge that Johnny’s father is the superintendent, but no one’s ever breathed a word suggesting that Johnny managed to make captain at Precinct 127 at the age of 27 using his connections.

Johnny’s a capable detective in his own right, having cracked a historical cold case in his first year as a detective serving their precinct. It’s a legendary tale that Johnny sometimes tells to newcomers and he usually ends his pep talk with an embarrassed closing statement of “However, self-praise is no praise.”

Mark’s about to ask if Yukhei’s heard about Johnny’s cold case when he hears a car approaching. He looks to Yukhei, signalling for him to keep his eyes trained on the road. Sure enough, a car whizzes past theirs not long after.

“It’s a black BMW and the plate matches the one we were told to look out for,” Yukhei announces, putting his lollipop back into his mouth. His previously playful expression has now been replaced by a serious one as he straps himself into the driver’s seat by putting on his seatbelt. “Let Yuta and Jaehyun know and call for the supporting teams to be on standby outside the warehouse.”

Mark nods an affirmative, contacting the relevant parties as Yukhei starts the ignition, smoothly pulling the car out from its parking spot and following the BMW towards the warehouse.

They park away from the warehouse, making sure that the suspects have entered the building before making another call to their team to ensure that everyone is ready to infiltrate the area. They put on their bulletproof vests and strap on their guns, making sure that the weapons are locked and loaded.

The adrenaline running through Mark’s veins pumps him up and his previously sleepy disposition is long gone, replaced with a sense of urgency and excitement. He doesn’t even have much time to consider how it’s 4am in the morning when everyone else is asleep. He just can’t wait to arrest the suspects that they’ve been tailing for the longest time now.

This case is linked to a series of cases that Jaehyun’s been working on with Mark’s help here and there. They’ve always gotten leads that ended up leading nowhere and it’s surprising that their tip this time around proved to be accurate.

Mark gets out of the car after he’s prepared, watching as Yukhei follows closely behind him. He signals to split up when he sees the groups of officers that arrived to serve as backup crouching on both sides of the building in two teams, each team covering an exit point from the front of the warehouse.

Yuta and Jaehyun are leading more officers through the back entrance, so as long as they stick to the outlined plan, there’s no way that these criminals are going to escape.

“I’ll go right,” Mark says lowly to Yukhei, who nods and runs left towards the group of officers gathered there.

Mark lets his instincts take control of the situation, his usually cluttered mind emptying out for the entirety of the moment. He’s leading four officers behind him, holding up his pistol as they cautiously trudge through the concrete walkway towards the supposed meeting point for the drug trade.

His heart is beating wildly but Mark can only hear Yukhei’s ragged breathing through the in-ear piece he has attached to him. There’s a possibility that the breathing might belong to Yuta or Jaehyun, but he can’t tell.

“ _Places_ ,” Mark hears Yuta’s voice say.

“Ready,” Mark hisses into the microphone on his chest, still looking straight to where his gun is pointed. He hears Jaehyun and Yukhei repeat affirmatives.

He peeks to see a group of men standing in the middle of the empty warehouse with two or three open suitcases lying on the floor, the insides of the bags filled with cash. There’s definitely a trade going on here, they just have to wait for the drugs to be unveiled before they can pounce.

There’s no arrest unless there’s a crime.

It happens quickly. The moment one of the men opens a duffel bag filled with clear plastic bags containing white powder, Mark hears Jaehyun call the attack.

They all jump out of their respective hiding spots on the count of three, surprising the criminals who barely even have time to draw their guns.

Mark quickly makes his way over to the centre point, incapacitating a man with swift movements by knocking his gun out of his hands. He whips his head to look around, and after noting that the others have the other criminals handled, he slides handcuffs onto his target, blabbering off the routine statement of the his rights and the legal implications of his words if he chooses to speak. Mark can see Yukhei doing the same thing in his peripheral vision, except Yukhei is exceptionally quick and walks over to help another officer cuff someone else.

When all the criminals have been successfully detained, Mark lets Yuta handle the issue of transporting them back to the detainment centre. Jaehyun comes over to pat Mark on the back, letting out a drawn out sigh as they watch the officers work on the scene.

“Mark!” Yukhei calls, jogging over to join the both of them. He gives Jaehyun a fist bump in greeting. “Hey, bro.”

Mark looks at Yukhei quizzically. What could Yukhei want from him now? “What?” Mark asks, blinking slowly as he considers his own question.

Maybe Yukhei wants to congratulate him on their first closed case as partners, or maybe he just wants to acknowledge how Mark’s a competent detective, or maybe— “We’ll split the arrests by the teams we led,” Yukhei says, nudging Mark on his shoulder. “I already counted. My team got three and yours got two, so I’m leading with one.”

Mark wants to argue that Johnny called off the bet already, this isn’t supposed to happen, but he knows that his words will be taken as a sign of defeat. He’s not going to give Yukhei the satisfaction. Oh my God, if he was starting to think that Yukhei was a decent person, all that progress ends here now.

In fact, he now thinks that Yukhei is a _terrible_ person.

Terrible. Horrible. Yukhei’s the definition of a menace.

“I can’t believe you’re still fighting over that,” Jaehyun comments, whistling after. “This is one tight rivalry, alright.”

“I didn’t know that we were still competing either,” Mark murmurs, softly enough for only himself to hear.

“Sorry?” Yukhei asks, clearly not having caught what Mark said.

“Nothing.” Mark forces a smile onto his face, holding out his hand to Yukhei. “Thank you for reminding me,” Mark says without actual gratitude, it sounds insincere even to him. “And congratulations on our first bust as partners.”

Yukhei takes his hand in a firm handshake. “Congratulations to you too, partner.”

Mark bites down on his teeth harshly as he widens his tight-lipped smile, letting go of Yukhei’s hand after. This conversation ends here. Mark guides Jaehyun away after, gripping the latter’s wrist tightly and causing Jaehyun to yelp in surprise.

“Hey, let go!” Jaehyun yells, wriggling his hand out of Mark’s grasp.

“Sorry,” Mark whispers when they’re out of Yukhei’s earshot. “He just gets on my nerves all the time! I’m such an idiot for even trusting him for one second. I think that he’s a nice guy for _one second_ and he steps all over me like I’m a pile of dog shit the next opportunity he gets!”

Jaehyun tilts his head to one side as he crosses his arms, clearly amused with Mark’s frustration. “Sounds like your shared hate boner is only growing stronger with Johnny’s new arrangement.”

“Hate boner?” Mark repeats humourlessly. “Maybe if that hate boner could pierce him through the heart so he’d fall and die.”

“Whoa, kinky.”

Mark slaps Jaehyun over the shoulder, disgusted. “Not what I meant!” he shouts, sighing loudly after. “Can you take me home tonight? I rode here with that tall jerk and I’m not about to get into his car again.”

“No.”

“Remember that second squad dinner when you—”

“Okay, I’ll take you home.”

Mark smiles in triumph as Jaehyun glares at him. Mark may play the role of the obedient junior detective a lot of the time, but it doesn’t mean that he won’t bite when he has to.

 

* * *

 

Mark has had a picture of how the situation would play out on the day when Johnny finally assigns him a long, complicated case. Mark’s very own ‘Johnny’s Cold Case’—the case that will solidify Mark’s reputation as a competent detective and follow him for the rest of his career.

Regardless of what that daydream played out like in Mark’s head, it’s infinitely different now.

Mark’s only ever taken simpler cases designated for junior detectives, likewise with Yukhei. Their cases are generally straight to the point, concerning petty theft and low-level drug deals. Usually cases that are able to be solved within a week or two, or an even shorter timespan as long as they play their cards right. Basically the bread and butter of detective work.

The only times Mark was able to work on major cases involving organised crime rings and notorious drug cartels was when he worked under a more senior detective. Mark has always had dreams of heading one of these operations himself, but he never imagined that he’d have to do so with Yukhei by his side.

Johnny assigns them a case the detectives from Precinct 116 have passed over to them, claiming that the activity of the organised crime gang ‘The Double Dragons’ started cropping up in their jurisdiction instead. It’s not uncommon for gangs to change areas of operation, but it’s definitely a little unusual for them to choose a location so close to their previous one.

Mark isn’t one to question this, however, because he’s been waiting for this ever since he started his job as a detective here. Mark’s been patiently standing in line for this very moment when Johnny will pass him thick folders concerning their suspects, leads, affiliates, all sorts of information with months or maybe years’ worth of notes and case reports sandwiched between the files.

Reading through paperwork is less than desirable, but having a case that’s the talk of the town? That’s not something Mark has any dispute with.

Johnny looks doubtful as he pushes the folders towards Yukhei and Mark, looking between the two junior detectives who have contrasting expressions on their faces.

Mark can’t hide the excitement that’s basically radiating from his entire person as he snatches as many files up as he can, cradling them to his chest not because he can’t wait to study them but because they’re the key to progress in his career. If this works out well for him, he might finally get the promotion he deserves. And that’s something exciting to him.

Yukhei, on the other hand, has his facial features contorted into an expression of distaste, probably put off by the insane amount of paperwork he’s going to have to read through.

Mark nudges him in the side, using his head to signal for Yukhei to pick up the remaining pile of folders. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the both of them and Mark would be livid if Yukhei were to ruin this for him.

“I’m not sure if you’re ready for this because you’re both still new to the force,” Johnny admits, scratching the back of his head as he looks them both up and down. “You’ve both shown tremendous potential as partners and your track records as individuals are stellar, but… I really don’t want to regret this, you know? The Double Dragons is a big gang.”

“You won’t regret this, sir,” Mark replies, nodding earnestly in support of his own statement. “I’ve heard so much about the gang since I was a child, I’m not going to let you down.”

“It’s going to be a long case you’ll be investigating alongside any other cases you’re assigned after,” Johnny adds, not exactly convinced by Mark’s words. “If you’ve seen how your seniors work you’ll know that it’s not easy juggling a major case and minor cases here and there. You’re going to have to work together to devise methods of attack. There’s a reason why cases like this one are only assigned to teams.”

Mark smiles widely, the load in his arms already making his muscles ache slightly. It was a mistake to pick them up this early but he’s going to look like an idiot if he were to put the files back down now. Mark glances at Yukhei, who’s been uncharacteristically quiet throughout this discussion.

Yukhei picked up the remaining folders like Mark told him to earlier, but he doesn’t seem to be struggling at all. Curse him and his arms.

“Detective Wong, you seem to have a lot on your mind,” Johnny says, picking up on Yukhei’s silence. “Do you have any concerns regarding the case?”

“No,” Yukhei answers immediately, but his tone is steady and firm. “I’m just thinking of how I can work my hardest to make you proud, Cap.”

“ _Suck-up_ ,” Mark hisses, glaring at Yukhei.

Yukhei only smiles in response.

“I’ve got a meeting with Lieutenant Qian Kun from the 116 in 15 minutes, so if we’re finished here I’m going to get going,” Johnny motions to stand up, less formal now that he’s already passed on the assignment to them. “I’m hoping the both of you will work together well and, if God’s willing, maybe you’ll do some damage on the gang.”

“Of course, sir!” Mark agrees, stepping aside for Johnny to get to the door.

Yukhei tails behind Johnny when Johnny exits the room, the thick folders still in his arms like they weigh nothing. “Please tell Kun that I miss his _donkatsu_ ,” he says to Johnny, smiling to himself. “I haven’t seen him in awhile…”

Johnny claps Yukhei on the back as they walk. “Will do, Xuxi,” he promises. “Kun’s secretary… Kim Jungwoo, I think, was already asking about you on his behalf.”

“They must really miss me, then.”

Johnny laughs, burying both his hands into his pockets. “I’m sure they miss their all-rounded ace,” he agrees. “But their loss is our gain. I’m glad you joined our team, Xuxi.”

Yukhei nods, elbowing Johnny lightly with a smile. He diverges paths with Johnny when he reaches his desk.

Mark’s too busy eavesdropping to realise that he’s stopped walking at Yukhei’s desk, too. The age old question of why Yukhei transferred to Precinct 127 is running circles in his head again and he has to physically shake his head to clear his mind. He sees Yukhei staring at him after he does.

“Are you okay?” Yukhei asks, slightly worried.

“Oh, yes,” Mark replies, suddenly hyperaware of the ache in his upper arms. “About the paperwork… we probably won’t be able to finish looking through them tonight so I’ll be taking a few files home. We’ll swap stacks tomorrow, maybe?”

Yukhei sets his folders down on his desk, humming softly. “You’re really going to read all that?”

“Uh, why not?”

Yukhei shrugs. “It just seems a bit ambitious, that’s all.”

“You’re not going to read your stack.”

“Probably not.”

Mark sighs, wanting to bang his head onto a wall. Yukhei is nothing if not frustrating. Why did Johnny think that they’d make good partners? They’re two drastically different people without even considering their strategies as detectives. It’s painfully apparent how contrasting their personalities are.

Mark’s all about hard work and dedication whereas Yukhei relies blindly on passion. Not that being passionate isn’t a good thing, but passion by itself can only take someone so far.

“I’ll read the highlights,” Yukhei suggests, reaching over to take half of Mark’s stack, relieving the latter of a part of his burden. “After you’re done, just let me know which parts are important and I’ll study them.”

“I’m not going to spoon-feed you,” Mark snaps, making his way towards his own desk halfway across the room.

Does Yukhei still think that he’s in school? Mark’s not going to act as his overly-involved after-hours caretaker who takes the time to compile important points for their weak student. Yukhei’s smart, almost impossibly so. He just chooses not to use his intelligence.

That’s something Mark’s not going to excuse.

Yukhei helps carry his files over to his desk anyway. “Fine, I’ll look through the files myself,” he relents, defeated. “But I don’t promise to read all of them.”

Mark flashes Yukhei one of his least genuine smiles to let Yukhei know that he doesn’t care what he chooses to do with his time. “Suit yourself,” Mark retorts, plopping himself down into his seat and flipping open a random file. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

“You don’t mean that, partner.”

“Don’t.”

“What? Don’t call you ‘partner’?”

Mark purses his lips, blinking slowly as he continues looking down at the words on the paper without actually reading them. “No… just stop talking to me.”

Yukhei laughs. Loudly. Annoyingly.

Mark looks up to see Yukhei’s hand covering his smile as he continues laughing. That smile is oddly contagious. Mark holds back his urge to mimic his expression. “Stop playing around and get to work!” Mark chides, shooing Yukhei away with both his hands. “Go away, I’m busy.”

“Are you too busy for dinner later? My treat.” There is a 10-second gap before Yukhei realises how it sounds and he chuckles lowly to alleviate the awkwardness. “Don’t worry, Jaehyun’s coming too. I owe him for picking up my laundry from the dry cleaner’s.”

Mark nods. “Okay.” Mark would’ve agreed to dinner even if it were just Yukhei and him anyway. It’s not like they haven’t shared meals together ever since they became partners—the term still sounds weird and ill-fitting to Mark’s ears.

Yukhei is pleased, nevertheless. “Alright, we’ll leave after our shift ends.”

“Yup.”

“Happy studying, partner.” And with that, Yukhei turns his back to saunter back towards his desk, but not before making multiple stops at others’ places to make aimless small talk around the station.

Mark rolls his eyes, looking back at his work. He’s determined to make progress on reading the material this time.

God, Yukhei and him really are from two different worlds.

 

* * *

 

Ever since being assigned the case concerning The Double Dragons, Mark has been keeping his eyes and ears peeled for any information regarding the gang’s activity. He talks to fellow detectives working on other cases, asking casually if they’ve heard anything recently or if there’s been any suspicious activity going around that can’t be pinned to any other crime groups.

Heck, Mark even asks some of the felons he detains from minor cases. “What do you know about The Double Dragons?” he’ll ask in passing before handing them over to the uniformed officers to be locked up.

So far Mark has nothing.

No new leads whatsoever.

“How is it possible that we’ve been on the lookout for weeks and we still have nothing?” Mark groans exasperatedly as he collapses into a seat around the oval conference table.

They’re having their weekly meeting at the precinct in a half hour to discuss their respective cases with the other detectives and Mark has nothing. Completely _zilch_ new information to share around the table. It’s going to be so humiliating, especially since this is the first time that everyone’s going to be actively listening to him because his case is _big_.

Yukhei doesn’t look disturbed by that fact at all, popping one of the White Rabbit candies that Sicheng from Precinct 116 brought to their Halloween party. “Relax, Mark,” Yukhei singsongs, falling into a chair next to Mark. “You’re so uptight.”

“Well, you’re too lax about this!”

“No, I’m pretty sure you’re just tense.”

Mark sighs, dragging his palm down his face as he lets his upper body fall onto the table. He lies there, his nose bridge pressed flat onto the surface of the table, as he tries to think about what he can say or do to make the embarrassment go down easier when he announces that he has nothing to share with the group again.

The only sound Mark hears is the obnoxious noise of Yukhei chewing on his candy. It sounds slightly wet and awfully gross.

Mark attempts to tune it out.

“ _Both Detective Wong and I have been working on cases on the side as we search for new leads on The Double Dragons. There hasn’t been any news regarding the gang as of late, but we’ve been contacting people who previously tipped the detectives at the 116 off regarding the gang’s—_ ” Mark’s internal monologue is interrupted when he feels two large hands on his shoulders, kneading the muscles of his back.

“Stop freaking out, it’s going to be fine,” Yukhei’s voice says, warm and confident. He continues working his fingers through the knots in Mark’s shoulders. “You need to _relax_.”

Mark wants to open his mouth to snap at Yukhei for always taking everything so lightly but his treacherous body won’t let him as he shuts his eyes to enjoy the amateur massage he’s receiving. It’s been a long while since Mark has been able to just sit back and unwind.

It’s been long enough for Mark to actually find Yukhei’s sloppy work on his shoulders mildly enjoyable.

Mark sighs, sitting up slowly and turning to look at Yukhei, who repositions his body so his freakishly long arms can still reach over to continue Mark’s massage. “What are you doing?” Mark asks, although he already knows the obvious. He just doesn’t know what else to say at the moment.

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

This whole situation is playing out exactly like a scene from a romantic comedy, except Mark forgets what the usual follow-up line should be, so he stays silent.

Yukhei presses his thumbs particularly harshly into Mark’s back, making the latter gasp in surprise. Yukhei laughs, pleased with himself.

“What was that for?!” Mark exclaims, bewildered.

“Just a little something to get your mind off work,” Yukhei remarks casually, continuing his mediocre massage with renewed energy. “You won’t get anything done if you’re so stressed. Just relax and leave the talking to me, alright? There’s literally nothing to be afraid of.”

“I’m not _afraid_.”

“You’re worried, disturbed, bothered… troubled, whatever,” Yukhei rolls his eyes. “But there’s really nothing wrong with not having any new information. It’s not like you’ve been sitting on your ass waiting for news to fall out of the sky. You’ve been actively searching and the whole goddamn precinct knows that.”

As much as Mark hates to admit it, Yukhei is right. The humiliation, embarrassment, and shame Mark is anticipating to come with the meeting later is mostly incepted by Mark himself. His coworkers have never spoken ill of him and they’re generally easygoing people.

“Plus, you’re _Detective Mark Lee._ Everyone and their mother can agree that you’d be the last person to slack off.”

Mark raises an eyebrow. Is it just him, or did Yukhei just speak of his name like it’s supposed to mean something? Like the phrase “Detective Mark Lee” is associated with… _something_. Something significant. Something supposedly positive.

Yukhei catches his wide-eyed expression and mimics it. “What’s up with your face?” he teases.

Mark is shaken out of his reverie and he’s about to ask what Yukhei meant by what he said earlier, but they’re interrupted by the arrival of the other detectives.

Doyoung walks in with Taeil following right behind him, and his footsteps halt abruptly at the door to the conference room, causing Taeil to walk directly into his back. “What’s happening here?” Doyoung asks, not motioning to enter, as Taeil grumbles at him to move.

“What’s what?” Yukhei questions right back.

“Why are you touching Mark like that?”

Mark is suddenly reminded of the weighted feeling of Yukhei’s palms on his shoulders, his fingers still rhythmically massaging them. Mark jumps, causing Yukhei’s hands to fall off him. “Come in, Detective Kim!” Mark says to Doyoung as he bows formally, attempting to change the subject. His voice is much louder than he expects it to be. “You’re here early.”

Taeil has managed to push past Doyoung to enter the room, taking the seat opposite Mark’s. “What was happening? I couldn’t see past Doyoung’s fat head,” he complains, holding his opened palm out to Yukhei. “Can I get some candy?”

Yukhei complies and throws a sweet into his outstretched hand.

“Thanks.”

Doyoung is still eyeing both Yukhei and Mark suspiciously as he takes slow steps towards the conference table. “I wasn’t dreaming when I saw Xuxi give you a massage, was I?” He has his eyes narrowed directly in Mark’s direction.

Mark swallows the lump in his throat, shooting Yukhei a look.

“He’s stressed out over some dumb work thing,” Yukhei explains, shaking his head as he speaks. “We’re all tired after working all day and still having to gather for this meeting. Do you want a massage, Doyoung?”

Doyoung grimaces. “Not from you, no.”

“I want one, Xuxi,” Taeil pipes up, already chewing on the White Rabbit candy Yukhei gave him earlier.

Yukhei shrugs, patting Mark on the thigh before standing up to go over to Taeil. “Suit yourself, Doyoung. I took a massage therapy lesson back when I visited my mum in Thailand, you’re missing out.”

Mark snorts but no one hears him.

Whoever taught Yukhei that class in massage therapy ought to have their license revoked. His massage wasn’t anything special.

Doyoung takes Yukhei’s empty seat, still looking at Mark like he’s found the biggest suspect in a drug smuggling case. His lips are pressed together into a thin line as he sits down and he nods at Mark when their eyes meet. “I see the partnership is going well,” Doyoung comments.

Mark wants to deny that statement but he’d be lying. Yukhei’s an _okay_ partner. There’s nothing worth complaining about outright. Mark only shrugs noncommittally in response.

The other detectives file in soon after and the meeting commences. They go around the table sharing updates on their cases and Johnny makes sure to compliment everyone who speaks.

When it’s Mark’s turn, Mark delivers his update just like he practiced in his head earlier, making sure to note that both Yukhei and himself are actively looking into new leads regarding The Double Dragons. Johnny gives Mark a thumbs up, not displeased by the fact that Mark hasn’t made any real progress with the case.

“It happens,” Johnny says, grinning Mark’s way. “Sometimes you just have to wait.”

Mark gives him a small smile back, slowly releasing the breath he didn’t realise he was holding. He catches Yukhei’s eye when he angles his body back into neutral position, and he swears that he sees Yukhei wink at him.

“Good job,” Yukhei mouths silently.

Mark blinks back at Yukhei dumbly for a couple of seconds as Yukhei gazes back at him expectantly.

What does Yukhei want? A response?

Mark forces a smile onto his face—something he can imagine looks akin to a grimace, but it somehow pacifies Yukhei and the latter finally turns to look away.

Mark looks down at his hands clasped in his lap, confused for the umpteenth time that day.

Sometimes he really wonders if Taeyong is right. Maybe Mark’s letting prejudice cloud his vision when it comes to Yukhei. Yukhei can be a tolerable person most days when he doesn’t bring up the bet, or when he doesn’t have his signature smug expression on his face.

But Mark remembers the bet, and suddenly he knows that he can’t get distracted by this whole thing now. He’s got the big case and the stupid year-end bet to worry about, and Yukhei is somehow both his partner and his competitor at the same time. He can’t let his emotions take control of how he plays his game now. That would be career suicide.

Mark sneaks a glance over in Yukhei’s direction and he notes how Yukhei’s looking straight at Yuta, who’s speaking. Mark holds back a sigh, tuning back into the discussion at the table.

 

* * *

 

“We’ve got a lead!” Yukhei shouts, barrelling through the busy street as Mark just finishes cuffing up a low rank lackey dealing in an alleyway in broad daylight.

“Huh?” Mark asks, confused.

One minute Yukhei was right next to him, following as they made a chase for their target through the narrow roads and eventually Mark managed to wear their suspect down enough to grab him in the middle of the street. It’s not an ideal place to be arresting someone, given that they’re in the direct line of vision of passersby and smartphones are public enemy number one, but it’ll do. The next second, Yukhei receives a phone call and excuses himself, leaving Mark to fumble with his handcuffs with one hand because his other arm’s occupied with pining down their target.

Yukhei then makes a dramatic announcement just as Mark rounds up their job. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.

“Our _big_ case,” Yukhei puts emphasis on the word ‘big’.

Mark’s eyes widen in surprise. “Oh my God, really?”

Yukhei nods, reaching over to grab the arm of their cuffed suspect. “There’s just a bit of a… _complication_ , with how we’re going to have to approach this. But we’ll figure it out.”

That makes both Mark _and_ their detainee scrunch up their facial features in puzzlement. “Did you get that?” Mark asks the handcuffed man, who only looks back at him with an equally-as-confused expression. “What’s he talking about?”

“Beats me,” the man mutters, looking between Yukhei and Mark. “You’re the detectives here.”

Mark blinks slowly. _Right_.

Yukhei only responds to Mark’s question with a smirk on his face.

 

“Do you want good news or even better news first?” Yukhei asks when they’re back at the precinct. He has an opened can of Coke in his hands that he takes a huge gulp from.

Mark is seated on the couch in the pantry, his hands resting in his lap as he considers Yukhei’s question. They’ve never really discussed anything on this level of vagueness before so he’s not sure what Yukhei will consider good news. Not that it matters really, because Yukhei’s going to have to tell him both pieces of information sooner or later.

Mark doesn’t know why he’s thinking so deeply about this.

“Good news,” Mark says, looking up when Taeyong steps into the room with a cup of yoghurt.

“Do you want some?” Taeyong offers, walking over to pass Mark his cup. “It’s mango-flavoured.”

Mark opens his mouth instead, wordlessly asking Taeyong to feed him, to which Taeyong does. It’s nice to be doted on as the youngest when they’re not using his age to ask favours from him. It’s Greek yoghurt. Mark grimaces at the sour aftertaste.

“Well, the good news is…” Yukhei trails off, using his hands to fill in his sentence. He’s just moving his fingers around at this point and it doesn’t help Mark figure out what he’s trying to say. “Well, the good news is that I just got a tip on where Kim Youngmin is.”

Mark can’t help but gape at Yukhei. “Really?” he asks, looking at Taeyong to see if the latter is sharing his surprise.

Taeyong isn’t. “Who’s that?”

“One of the leaders of The Double Dragons, that’s who,” Yukhei replies, smug. “But bad news is, he’s staying in a place with incredibly tight security, so there’s no way we’ll be able to get anywhere near him without him fleeing when we pull up with an arrest warrant.”

“You didn’t say there would be bad news,” Mark mutters, frowning.

“Oh, but I did say there would be _even better_ news.”

Mark meets Yukhei’s eyes that are gleaming with mischief. He swallows, already anticipating to be disappointed by whatever that comes out of Yukhei’s mouth next. He’s not going to put any more trust in Yukhei. He’s learnt the hard way never to trust whatever Yukhei says.

“Well, we can get in on one condition…” Yukhei lets the air of mystery hang in the room.

Taeyong practically bounces on his feet as he sucks on his spoon, still clutching his cup of yoghurt tightly in his hands. “What is it?” he asks, showing more enthusiasm than Mark.

“We have to go undercover.”

Mark sighs—a long, drawn out sigh. “No,” Mark shuts the idea down firmly. “ _No_.”

“Why not?”

“Remember the last time you told me to take up a secret identity and we ended up getting arrested because—”

Yukhei holds up a hand, stopping Mark’s rant. “Okay, I get it. So things didn’t go the way they should the last time we pretended to be other people, but… this time, I’m sure it’ll work out.” Yukhei crosses his arms, obviously confident about whatever plan he has brewing in his head. “While you were driving earlier, I already took the liberty of drafting out our identities and the roles we have to play.”

Mark promptly ignores Taeyong’s wolf-whistle in favour of narrowing his eyes at Yukhei.

“Oh, brighten up, Markie. Put some trust in me, will you?”

Mark continues staring Yukhei down.

The last time he let Yukhei talk him into going undercover, they infiltrated a casino under the guises of two wealthy businessmen looking to discuss an arrangement with the owner of the place. The whole operation went awry when Yukhei somehow changed the narrative, making Mark play his supportive plaything of the night by asking Mark to sit on his lap right before they started a game of poker.

Needless to say, the night ended with them quarrelling and unintentionally starting a bar brawl (courtesy of their covers being blown) and a trip to the local police station.

It actually happened not too long ago. Probably two weeks ago at most. The night’s events are still fresh in Mark’s mind.

Mark swore that he wouldn’t blindly oblige to Yukhei’s ridiculous commands ever again after that night.

Yukhei sighs, still reluctant to let his bright idea go. “Taeyong, can you give us a moment?” he says to the sergeant, winking at him when he nods and motions to leave. “Thanks.”

Taeyong pushes his yoghurt cup into Mark’s hands before going back to his desk, but not before punching Mark lightly in the shoulder as a goodbye.

“I thought all about it,” Yukhei insists. “There’s no better way. I got the tip of where Kim is staying, and it’s a luxury condominium with really tight security. Not only that, he has his own cronies guarding his unit.”

“So how will going undercover help?” Mark crosses his arms, the half-eaten cup of yoghurt held awkwardly towards one of his elbows.

“That’s where it gets fun. There’s a unit in the building that’s for sale on the market. We’ll be playing simple enough roles. Just a young, rich, and good looking couple interested in buying the place with daddy’s money. I’ve contacted the realtor already.”

“So I’m going to have to go with it even if I don’t want to.”

Yukhei widens his eyes, shaking his head vehemently. “No!” he exclaims. “That’s not it. You can obviously shut it down if you have a better idea. This is just what I have queued.”

Mark purses his lips. Somehow, this crazy plan seems doable. He can’t think of any other way for them to infiltrate the building without raising suspicion other than by looking at another unit, and he supposes what Yukhei is trying to suggest is that they take a look around after to scope out the area and see if Kim Youngmin is really there.

Yukhei is looking at him thoughtfully, his head tilted to a side like a big puppy as he awaits Mark’s verdict over whether the plan flies or dies.

Mark really doesn’t want to say it.

“So…” Yukhei drawls, blinking rapidly. “What will it be?”

“It’ll do,” Mark mumbles, uncrossing his arms to prod at Taeyong’s yoghurt with the spoon, sulking into the cup. He didn’t want to back down and accept Yukhei’s plan, but it does seem like the only workable tactic right now.

Mark’s drawing a blank.

Mark has no interest in eating the rest of the yoghurt but he continues poking at it anyway. When he looks back up from the food, Yukhei has his mouth open. “What?” Mark asks, a spoonful of yoghurt in his hand.

“ _Ah_ ,” Yukhei motions for Mark to feed him the yoghurt.

Mark pales. “What?” he says again, his facial expression contorting into a cringe.

“Feed me, my arms are tired.”

Mark looks to the spoon in his hand and Yukhei’s opened mouth, opting to do the only thing that he thinks will be right. Mark takes the spoon and holds it towards Yukhei’s mouth, purposefully missing and smearing Greek yoghurt on the edges of Yukhei’s lips and on his chin before letting the latter taste what’s remaining on the spoon.

Mark bursts out laughing.

Yukhei looks ridiculous like this. The lower half of his face is a mess. What makes it funnier is that Yukhei isn’t even mad, he’s only pouting in the most exaggerated manner as he tries to clean the yoghurt off with his thumb.

“What the hell, Mark?” Yukhei groans, chuckling a bit too. “That was entirely unnecessary.”

“Much like telling me to feed you like your mother,” Mark retorts.

“Oh no. I’m just helping to get you into the mood for when we go undercover. You’re feeding me like my _husband_ ,” Yukhei explains, making his way to the sink in the corner of the room to wash off the yoghurt on his face. “It’s high time you learnt the way to treat someone you love!”

Mark rolls his eyes, getting up from the couch to throw the remainder of the yoghurt in the trash. “Well, no thank you. I believe in tough love.”

Yukhei finishes up over at the sink and he turns around to wiggle his eyebrows at Mark. “Oh, really? Then I’ll just have to be prepared.”

“Save it,” Mark snaps, walking away to go back to his desk to finish up his paperwork for the day.

Yukhei is unbelievable.

 

* * *

 

Working undercover with Yukhei wouldn’t be so insufferable if he didn’t get so _into_ his characters all the time. It’s funny at first, it really is. It’s entertaining to see how Yukhei immerses himself into his chosen identity, altering minor characteristics and mannerisms to fit their profile.

Yukhei’s almost too dedicated when it comes to situations like this.

However, it gets tricky when Mark gets thrown into the mix. It’d be far easier to just laugh at Yukhei from the sidelines if Yukhei were to be the only one acting like a completely different person, but because they’re playing a couple… Mark has to act along with him. And that’s painful.

Mark can’t lie to save his life. He first realised how bad of a liar he was back when he was five. He broke his mother’s precious tea set during a game of football in the house with his brother (although they were told repeatedly not to). One thing led to another and soon they were sat next to the rubble on the ground.

Mark wanted to protect both his older brother and himself, so after his brother fled the scene, Mark decided that he had to tell his very first lie. At least, his very first _big_ lie. He told his mother that a strong gust of wind blew through the window and toppled the tea set over in front of his very eyes, conveniently forgetting that he had a whole football cradled in his arms.

Well, it’s safe to say that whatever happened that day didn’t help Mark become more skilled at lying. He’s just honest by nature. God probably took one look at him when he was created and said, “This kid’s going to live a life of truth, whether he likes it or not.”

Thus, Mark usually chooses simple characters that he won’t have to completely shed his own identity to assume. He honestly just changes his name, really, and maybe tells a small lie about his job. Other than that, it’s smooth sailing because Mark doesn’t have to construct an elaborate web of lies to cover his tracks.

In this case, Mark’s struggling a little bit, because he has to remember that he’s married to Yukhei. At least for this operation, that is.

Yukhei doesn’t let Mark forget. He keeps a tight arm wrapped around Mark’s waist from behind the moment they meet the realtor, pulling Mark close against his side as they try to walk as conjoined twins. It’s hardly necessary.

Mark bites back a sneer when Yukhei laughs into his ear softly, obviously enjoying how irritated Mark is by his initiative to play up their status as a couple. “Can I get a bit of space?” Mark asks lowly as they wait at the entrance of the apartment complex while the realtor registers their visit with the security team.

Yukhei’s hand is still firmly gripping Mark, and Yukhei taps his fingers against his waist as he hums. “No, not really,” he replies, his eyes scanning the lobby. “It’s quite grand here, isn’t it?”

Mark feels annoyed at first, but he tries to remain professional as he looks around to inspect the area. The lobby is wide and a large chandelier hangs from the ceiling above them. The tiles lining the floor are a mixture of gold and black marble, spelling out the initials of the name of the development. It’s a luxurious place, but they already knew that.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to live here?” Yukhei asks.

The realtor, Kang Daniel, is animatedly chatting with a couple members of security. The three of them share a laugh.

Mark feels Yukhei’s fingers drum against his waist again. “What?” he hisses, turning to glare at Yukhei.

“Could you not check the realtor out while I’m talking to you?”

“I’m not checking him out. I’m keeping an eye on him.”

“A likely excuse,” Yukhei tuts, rolling his eyes. “Just remember that you’re supposed to be in love with _me_ , because it’s going to be really embarrassing if you forget.”

Mark blatantly ignores Yukhei, wriggling his body to escape Yukhei’s grasp and to put some distance between them. He steps away from Yukhei, smiling in triumph when Yukhei makes a noise of protest, but before the latter can open his mouth to complain, Daniel returns.

Daniel looks goodnatured enough. He was friendly when they introduced themselves to him right outside the building—a wide smile on his face and his eyes twinkling with mirth when he noticed how firmly Yukhei held Mark towards him. Mark immediately understood why Daniel is the top realtor in all of Seoul currently—there’s something about the man that just makes this whole house-hunting process seem fun, and their journey has barely begun.

Daniel excitedly holds up an access card, explaining that they don’t actually need it because the apartments in the building are all fit with biometric sensors. The card is used for calibration purposes because the unit is vacant.

Yukhei steps aside to let Mark into the lift first, stubbornly insisting that Daniel go in next although Daniel has been holding the door for them the entire time. Eventually, to Daniel’s insistence, Yukhei steps in next to Mark.

“Does anyone famous live here?” Yukhei asks casually as they ride up to the 24th floor. “I’ve heard there have been celebrity sightings around this area.”

Daniel laughs. “Well, I can’t say if there are any celebrities of the entertainment kind, but there are notable people living here.” Daniel turns to look at Mark with a small smile. “It’s a quiet neighbourhood, so your privacy is guaranteed.”

Yukhei makes a show of taking Mark by the hand after to lead him out of the lift. Mark wants to swat Yukhei’s hand away—and he’s honestly about to—but he realises what he’s doing right before he does it and he resignedly relaxes his hand in Yukhei’s hold.

There are two units on their floor and they turn to the one on the right. There’s a gold-plated sign displaying that it’s the 48th unit. Daniel waves the card in front of the sensor and the door unlocks with a click.

“Come on in,” Daniel says as he pushes the door open, stepping aside to let the two of them into the apartment.

The apartment is large, just as Mark expected. It’s decorated with minimalistic furniture, the blacks and whites standing out against the cream-coloured walls. If Mark were richer, he’d sign the lease in a heartbeat.

Yukhei looks equally as impressed. He lets Mark’s hand go, looking around the living room as he absentmindedly makes comments on the choice of decor to Daniel.

Daniel is happily responding to each and every one of Yukhei’s opinions, giving him extra information regarding the source and brand of each item. The curtains are made from Egyptian silk, the leather couch imported from Italy, the glass coffee table crafted in France… Mark tunes it all out in favour of subtly staring out of the open front door towards the unit opposite them.

Although the complex holds less units than a conventional apartment building, probably due to the sheer size of each unit, there are at least 50 different apartments in the building itself. They can’t possibly ring the doorbell to every unit without blowing their covers and crippling the whole investigation.

Mark’s starting to wonder if the plan is really as easy as it sounded.

Maybe it’s by the gods’ arrangement, or maybe Mark is just incredibly lucky nowadays, but the door to apartment 47 opens, and out steps two burly men dressed in black suits with sunglasses framing their faces. It’s a whole cliché, Mark thinks.

Mark steps away from the door to watch them, careful to not be within their line of sight as he throws a concerned glance Yukhei and Daniel’s way. He can’t look too suspicious now.

The men converse briefly outside the door in hushed tones, nodding gruffly as they take one last look into the apartment before closing the door behind them to leave. Mark notes that one of them seems to have something kept in the waistband of his trousers—a gun? He can’t be sure. All he can see is that said man reaches to pat at his waist, only pressing the ‘down’ button on the lift when he confirms that the object is present.

Could this really be where Kim Youngmin is hiding out? Mark pales. Isn’t that a bit too easy?

Mark takes a deep breath to calm himself, sauntering over to the kitchen counters. “Honey,” he calls, biting back a snarky comment when Yukhei immediately twists his body over with his call. “Can you come here for a second?”

Yukhei nods, excusing himself from Daniel as he pads over to Mark. “What is it?” he asks, keeping his voice low once they’re out of Daniel’s earshot.

“I saw two guys that look like typical mafia guys come out of unit 47.”

Yukhei’s eyes widen. “What? Really?” There’s an excited smile that stretches across his face. “Do you really think we’d be that lucky?”

“I have no idea… do you want to ask Daniel?”

“Ask him what?”

Mark shrugs, currently battling with himself internally as he tries to decide if this whole coincidence is really such a _coincidence_. Everything seems to be falling into place a little too nicely. Something could go wrong any minute now.

Yukhei is a little more tactful and he takes Mark’s suggestion, casually resting a hand on the small of Mark’s back as he turns to speak to Daniel. “Daniel, you were talking about the neighbours earlier… what kind of ‘notable people’ are we talking about?”

Daniel seems surprised by the question as he draws his phone out of his pocket. “Hmm,” he hums, grinning. “Well, mostly businesspeople, I’d say. CFOs, CEOs, chairmen and the likes of large companies. The neighbours are the least of your worries, I can assure you. They’re all social elites.”

“What about the unit opposite ours?” Mark speaks up, trying to ignore the way Yukhei’s fingers are drumming on his back more hurriedly now.

There’s a moment of silence. “I wasn’t in charge of unit 47,” Daniel replies, shaking his head. “But I believe the tenant is a wealthy businessman who isn’t around much.”

Mark nods, trying to seem interested in Daniel’s words. “Oh, that’s great. Do you know what material the counter is made of?”

“It’s black granite, carved out of an entire slab. No adhesive used anywhere. It’s one of a kind.”

They take a moment to marvel over the countertop, the gleaming surface of it less exciting than Mark wanted to it to be. Daniel excuses himself after awhile to take a phone call because “Mondays are always the busiest.” Yukhei is beaming as he says that.

“What?” Mark asks, inspecting the induction cooktop lazily. “What’s that smile for?”

Yukhei is still grinning. “He has another appointment. I think he’s going to leave after taking this call.”

Mark raises an eyebrow, about to ask Yukhei how he knows that when Daniel comes back to them, a little frazzled.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Jung,” Daniel apologises with a pained expression of his face. He has his phone held in one of his hands as he gestures vaguely towards it. “I have another client scheduled in the next 15 minutes and I’d hate to hurry you while you’re looking at the place…”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Yukhei replies, leaning forward to pat Daniel’s shoulder comfortingly. “My husband and I can always take a look around ourselves. The door locks when you close it, doesn’t it? We just want to check out the rooms for awhile more. We can show ourselves out if you’re in a pinch for time.”

Daniel glances at his wristwatch before looking back up at the two of them. He sighs. “Of course, Mr. Jung. I’m so sorry that I have to cut our appointment short like this, but… the next client is really fussy. Please do let me know if you have any queries and don’t be shy to walk around.”

Yukhei handles saying goodbye to Daniel as Mark whispers a quiet word of thanks to the realtor before walking towards the master bedroom.

Yukhei joins Mark there shortly after Daniel leaves, looking all too pleased about himself.

“So?” Mark asks, sitting on the large bed in the middle of the room. He looks up at Yukhei questioningly.

Yukhei seems to get the idea without any more words required. “I got some friends to press Daniel a bit,” he explains, carding his fingers through his hair as he leans against the doorframe. “Nothing major. Just to make sure he steps out of the area so we have time to look around without being disturbed.”

“And ‘Mr. Jung’?”

“Jaehyun doesn’t even go by his real name, no one’s going to suspect a thing.”

Mark pretends he isn’t impressed. “Maybe we should check out unit 47. Pose as curious potential neighbours or something.”

Yukhei nods, and they set into action.

 

Mark readies himself for the performance of his lifetime when he rings the doorbell, trying his best to seem the least threatening he can as he fidgets in front of the apartment. He hopes he won’t stumble over his own words later when making his introduction, if someone even opens the door, that is.

Yukhei is humming nonchalantly as he taps his foot on the ground to a rhythm, a hip cocked to a side as he waits for someone to answer the door.

Mark tries ringing the doorbell again.

There seems to be noise at the other side of the door, and then more sounds—something’s happening in the apartment.

“Yukhei,” Mark says quietly as he attempts to look under the door for any signs of movement. There isn’t a crack under the large wooden door—fuck rich people and their issues with privacy. “Can you pick a lock?”

“What? Shouldn’t we wait for them to answer the door like normal people? There isn’t even a lock on the door.” Yukhei is puzzled as he says that, reaching forward to press on the doorbell one more time before a loud thud resonates from inside the apartment. He swallows. “Okay, I’m guessing that someone’s on the run.”

“How did they know about us?” Mark hisses, pushing down the door handle again and again as he tries his luck to open the door. “Can you… I don’t know, do something?!”

Yukhei pulls an access card out of his back pocket, one that looks identical to the one that Daniel had in his hands earlier. Mark doesn’t even have the time to ask him where he got that from. Yukhei waves it across the sensor and the door unlocks, just in time for Mark to push it open to reveal someone attempting to climb out the window.

The man, clad in all black, tries to scurry out quicker as Yukhei lunges forward to grab him by the collar, pulling him back into the apartment in one swift movement.

Mark peers over the edge of the window, seeing a large rope that leads to the emergency stairs at the side of the apartment complex and a large black SUV that’s parked alongside it. Mark’s about to tell Yukhei when the car speeds off, leaving Mark to gape at the window.

“They sped off that quickly?” Yukhei asks once he’s done cuffing up their suspect.

“I’ll call for the officers to be on the lookout for a black Mercedes SUV driving down any of the streets within a 5km radius from now on,” Mark quickly says, pulling out his phone and dialling for the headquarters. “Oh, fuck. I didn’t think they’d know who we were.”

“While you do that… since you were the one that realised what was going on, do you want this one on your count?”

Mark stares at Yukhei dumbly. “What?” he asks, holding his phone to his ear.

“We’re at 67-65, I’m leading. Do you want this guy or not?”

“No!” Mark snaps, pacing away from both Yukhei and the handcuffed man—who’s awfully silent for someone who’s been arrested—rolling his eyes. How can Yukhei think about something as stupid as their bet when they’ve probably failed their first big case? There’s something fishy going on if the gang could’ve figured out both their identities within 30 minutes of them entering the area.

Oh my God. This is going to be the end of Mark’s career.

Johnny is going to think Mark is an incompetent detective, not even capable of handling a case as simple as tracking down the head of a notorious gang—okay, but when Mark thinks of it like this, it doesn’t seem as simple. It’s actually quite complicated! There are a lot of hurdles Mark has to jump across before landing at the top of the chain.

Like this lackey here, who’s being questioned by Yukhei right now as they wait for backup to arrive.

Who even runs the phone line, anyway? Why aren’t they answering Mark’s call yet?

Mark groans in frustration.

“Chill out, Mark,” Yukhei chides, sitting crosslegged on the floor next to their detainee. “Hey, dude, could you tell my partner to relax?”

The man shrugs. “Yeah, detective. Take a chill pill.”

Yukhei attempts to high-five the man before realising that he’s handcuffed, so he settles for punching him lightly in the shoulder as a form of thanks for his cooperation.

Mark shuts his eyes tightly, breathing out evenly through his nose. Oh, God. This really is the end of his career.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> will i ever write a markhei fic without name-dropping/incorporating kang daniel in it? probably not  
> hopefully this chapter was... ok...
> 
> twt: [@lucashaeyadwae](http://twitter.com/lucashaeyadwae)


	3. Chapter 3

It takes four full days of strict questioning and negotiation before Kim’s underling they arrested back at the apartment speaks. There aren’t too many charges against him—mostly just possession charges, granted that they found a number of 1kg bags of cocaine hidden in the walls of the apartment during their search.

The maximum sentence is a few years, so the lackey wouldn’t risk snitching in exchange for a couple months’ of a lightened sentence. In fact, he doesn’t even let Kim’s name slip from his lips even once, his deflection from The Double Dragons only failing him with the fact that he has their logo tattooed on his right bicep.

This brings Mark to the fact that he isn’t supportive of using tattoos as a form of pledging one’s commitment towards a certain party or person—he’d _never_ think of getting a tattoo as tribute to anyone in this world. He’s seen the mess using something as permanent as a tattoo to express one’s love can create.

It’s evident in the way Mark had to schedule two separate laser removal sessions for Jeno and Jaemin after they broke up last year. Lee Jeno and Na Jaemin are two of Mark’s close friends from high school who attended the same police academy as him after graduation. The whole saga started after the two of them got each other’s names inked onto the insides of their wrists, only to break up two months after they’d gotten the tattoos done.

All is currently well for their tattoos, however, because they got back together shortly after. Only to break up and get back together again. And again. And _again_.

Mark doesn’t question them anymore, but he’s still their go-to person whenever they want to make their laser removal appointments. Mark’s stopped calling the doctor’s office for real after the second time they broke up.

Mark digresses.

Kim’s lackey admits that he is associated with The Double Dragons after a session of questioning with Yukhei. Mark’s been trying for _days_ but he didn’t get peanuts, yet Yukhei steps in there for 30 minutes and he comes out with a key piece of information.

Yukhei definitely uses unruly methods to coax information out of his suspects. Mark makes a mental note to watch the security footage later.

“Kang Daniel told them,” Yukhei announces as he pushes aside some of Mark’s files so he can sit on Mark’s desk, much to Mark’s dismay. “Top realtor in Seoul, puppy-eyed angel Kang Daniel tipped off our targets. How did he even know who we were?”

Mark furrows his eyebrows. “Daniel? No way.”

“It’s hard to believe, but he’s pure evil underneath that charming exterior.” Yukhei looks smug as he says that, crossing his arms haughtily. “Maybe that’s how he became a top realtor. He sells his morals for dirty money. I’m really surprised that he figured us out, though.”

Mark blinks slowly as he studies Yukhei’s face. Yukhei is grinning in a self-satisfied manner. “Maybe he guessed because you were feeling for your gun in your holster the entire time. Or maybe from the fact that you used Jaehyun’s real name to schedule an appointment with him, knowing that an easy Google search will show that Jaehyun’s a detective. Or… maybe even because you were holding your ‘husband’ on such a short leash and playing up your failing relationship for no good reason.”

“Oh, come on. Our relationship is not _failing_. Sure, it needs some work, but—”

Mark holds up a hand, interrupting Yukhei mid-sentence. “Anyway, what are we going to do about Daniel?”

Yukhei shuts his mouth, uncrossing his arms after as he hops off Mark’s desk. “Well, I’m going to call Kang Daniel and I’ll ask him what he knows about where Kim is going to hole up next. It can’t be that hard.”

Mark wants to flick Yukhei behind the ear for being arrogant, but he knows that karma will do the job for him once Yukhei realises that it’s not that easy to contact someone associated with the mafia. Does Yukhei even have common sense built into his head?

“Oh, right!” Yukhei exclaims, reaching into the back pocket of his trousers and he pulls out a few pieces of wrapped candies. “It’s the cola candy from Southeast Asia! I swiped some from Ten’s desk.”

Mark lets Yukhei take his hand to force the sweets into his palm. “If Ten comes looking for them…”

Yukhei laughs. “Just eat them before he gets here. He’s like, four feet tall. You can take his damage.”

As if it was cued in a written script, Ten yells “I heard that!” from his desk.

“I’ll go talk to your sweetheart Mr. Kang on the phone now, so you stay put right here,” Yukhei annoyingly coos, patting Mark on the head as if he were a puppy. “Don’t move. Daddy’s going to come back with good news.”

Mark almost chokes on the cola candy he throws into his mouth. “What the fuck?” he snaps, wanting to chew Yukhei out for being disgusting when he sees that Yukhei’s already walking away, the shit-eating grin plastered onto his face seared into Mark’s memory for life.

 

Somehow, by the grace of some god, Yukhei manages to reach Daniel without much trouble. Daniel denies any association with The Double Dragons and even comes down to the station to give a statement. Mark doesn’t offer to take his statement, knowing very well that Yukhei won’t let him live it down if he does.

Yukhei gets Daniel’s statement down in less than an hour before releasing the realtor, patting him on the back after as if they were good friends. Daniel looks less than impressed about Yukhei’s casual friendliness, but he doesn’t say anything outright.

Mark can see Daniel approach his desk in his peripheral vision and he pretends to busy himself with some paperwork. “Mr…” Daniel starts, before realising that he doesn’t really know Mark’s name. They introduced themselves as “Mr. Jung and Jung” back when Yukhei used Jaehyun’s name for their covers. “Um, Detective Lee.” Daniel seems to have read the plaque on Mark’s desk.

Mark looks up, feigning surprise. “Oh! Mr. Kang,” he says, standing up abruptly to offer Daniel a handshake, which Daniel receives smoothly. “What brings you to the station?”

Daniel purses his lips. “Well, your partner, Detective Wong, asked me to give a statement regarding what happened a few days ago…” Daniel trails off, scratching the back of his head awkwardly as he clears his throat. “I just want you to know that I told him all I know. I’m not associated with The Two Snakes or whatever the gang is called.”

“Oh.”

“I hope there isn’t any misunderstanding between us.”

Mark raises an eyebrow at Daniel before looking towards Yukhei, who’s watching them from Jaehyun’s desk not too far away. Mark sees Yukhei nudge Jaehyun forcefully, making the latter flinch. “What do you mean?” Mark asks, turning back to Daniel.

“I just want us to be clear,” Daniel offers, smiling a little. “Um... also, does this mean that you’re not married to Detective Wong, or...”

Yukhei takes this as the opportune moment to step into the conversation. “Mr. Kang!” he says loudly, slapping Daniel across the back as he tries to steer Daniel away from Mark’s desk by the shoulders. “Thank you so much for your cooperation. The citizens of Seoul are forever indebted to you.”

“Uh, it’s nothing...” Daniel tries to say, but Yukhei’s already shoving him towards the exit. “I actually—”

“Also, Markiepoo, could you go grab the notes from the questioning room for me?”

Mark nods, swallowing as he tries to distance himself from whatever is about to happen next. Thankfully, he sees that Daniel visibly deflates as he smooths the material of his suit down when Yukhei parks him at the exit. Mark waves a small goodbye in his direction.

Daniel grins, giving him a two-finger salute.

“Goodbye, Daniel!” Yukhei shouts to no one in particular as his back is already turned. He skulks back towards Jaehyun’s desk where Jaehyun has his legs crossed as he leans back into his swivel chair, entertained by the entire display.

Daniel leaves after bowing politely.

Mark wonders what Daniel did to deserve any of this.

When Mark brings Yukhei his notes—or what Yukhei calls notes, really—Yukhei spares one look at the pieces of paper before taking them from Mark and throwing them into Jaehyun’s rubbish bin. “Thanks,” Yukhei says, reaching over to squeeze Mark’s shoulder.

“I walked all the way there to fetch it and you’re just going to throw it away?”

Yukhei at least has the decency to look guilty. He wordlessly asks for Jaehyun’s help by kicking Jaehyun’s knee lightly from his seat on the table.

“Xuxi just doesn’t want you getting too involved with that cute realtor boy,” Jaehyun explains, already bored of the whole situation. When Yukhei kicks him in the shin this time with more force, Jaehyun yelps. “You know what I mean! The realtor might be dangerous. Xuxi is just looking out for you.”

Mark ignores Yukhei’s eager nodding. “Whatever, you guys are weird,” he opts to say instead, waving the matter away with his hand. “So is Daniel complicit or not?”

Upon looking through what Yukhei deems as notes from his statement-taking, Mark knew that he’d have to learn new information verbally from Yukhei, because Yukhei doesn’t ever write anything down. In fact, Yukhei barely even records anything in pen. All that’s written—no, _drawn_ —on his pieces of paper are usually rough sketches of stickmen holding balloons and ice cream cones.

Mark would listen to the audio recording but he really doesn’t have 30 minutes to kill. Plus, knowing Yukhei, the first 15 minutes of the recording will be pointless small talk.

“Oh, he’s definitely an accomplice,” Yukhei states, narrowing his eyes slightly. “Really, Mark. Am I the only one who can see through his bluff? Kang Daniel is pure evil.”

“I bet he’s ‘evil’ for more reasons than one,” Jaehyun supplies. That earns him another kick from Yukhei, but Jaehyun narrowly avoids the impact by sliding his chair away right on time.

“Did he say something implicating?” Mark asks.

Everyone knows better than to trust everything a criminal says. Kim’s lackey may have said that Daniel was the one who divulged information to them regarding the detectives’ presence, but that could just be a coverup for something more complicated. Daniel is an easy prop to use because he was conveniently there, but Kang Daniel… really?

Mark would sooner believe that Yukhei sold them both out than that Kang Daniel—their really honest, incredibly smiley realtor—is working with the mafia.

Okay, maybe that’s a lie.

Mark knows where Yukhei’s allegiances lie and although he won’t admit it out loud… he trusts Yukhei. More than he’d like to. Simply because Yukhei hasn’t given him any reason to think otherwise.

“He said a lot of things,” Yukhei replies ambiguously, sighing after. “But nothing worth dwelling on too much. Just trust me. I know his kind. Kang Daniel’s affiliated with The Double Dragons, I feel it in my gut.”

Jaehyun snorts at that.

“Just… stay away from him, okay?”

Mark realises that Yukhei is speaking to him when he says his last sentence, and he tries not to let his surprise show on his face. “Um, okay,” he mutters as he processes the way Yukhei’s looking at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Yukhei’s eyes are trained on him in an intense manner as he stays silent for a couple more seconds. “Like what?” Yukhei asks after awhile. A _long_ while.

“Can you both stop pretending that I’m not here?” Jaehyun groans.

“I’m going to go get some work done,” Mark hurriedly says, breaking eye contact with Yukhei immediately as he walks back to his own desk. He hears Jaehyun’s voice lowly chiding Yukhei for something, but he quickens his footsteps to avoid overhearing anything.

Mark doesn’t pay his palpitations much heed as he opens up folder after folder on his desk, further worsening the organised mess he calls his workspace.

It’s difficult to get Yukhei’s request out of his head when he comes across Yukhei’s report on Daniel’s statement in a thin file set in a corner of his table later in the day. Yukhei probably left it there for him while he was busy studying up on other cases related to The Double Dragons.

There’s a sticky note stuck onto the first page of the transcript when Mark opens the file. The note is scribbled in Yukhei’s hasty handwriting.

 _He’s a liar_ , it reads, with several angry emojis sketched onto the edges of the paper.

Mark rolls his eyes as he glances over in the direction of Yukhei’s spot. Yukhei is hunched over a small mountain of paperwork, chewing on the cap of a pen in his hand. There’s something… _different_ , about the way Yukhei has his eyebrows knit together in a focused expression while he’s biting down onto his pen. There’s something endearing about it.

Mark rarely ever sees Yukhei this invested when performing the desk-related portion of his job.

Yukhei must have eyes at the top of his head because he motions to look up not long after Mark first starts watching him. Mark thanks God for his quick reflexes because he looks back down at his work and narrowly escapes being caught.

There’s an odd feeling pooling at the bottom of his stomach when Mark studies the sticky note on the transcript once more. The little emojis stare back at him pointedly.

Mark sighs.

He needs a break.

 

* * *

 

In hindsight, Mark should’ve known better than to agree to Yuta’s offer to buy everyone rounds of drinks. Mark’s alcohol tolerance is a hot topic of discussion because there’s no set benchmark, if he has to be honest. He’s gotten himself tipsy after two vodka shots before, but he’s also downed a whole pint of beer within minutes with no evident effect.

So one can say that Mark is a ticking time bomb whenever he drinks.

But who in their right mind would say no to free booze? Certainly not Mark. Especially not when Johnny is coming along too. There’s no reason for him to chicken out just because he’d risk having to call into work sick tomorrow morning in the case of a hangover.

Johnny will understand.

“I’m a whole ass god,” Yuta boasts, a shot glass in hand as he taps it against the tabletop before throwing it back in one swift motion. “I’m a legend!”

“You’re really not that special,” Mark hears Sicheng say from right beside Yuta, looking bored and unimpressed by the topic of conversation.

Dong Sicheng is one of the detectives from Seoul’s 116th Precinct and also Yuta’s… boyfriend? Mark doesn’t know for sure. He’s been trying to figure out the dynamic between Yuta and Sicheng for over a year now to no avail. There’s some serious push-and-pull going on between the two of them (the pushing singlehandedly managed by Sicheng) and they’ve never explicitly stated that they’re going out with each other.

Mark supposes that it’s something of an open secret, but maybe that’s not the term for it either, because Yuta doesn’t bother keeping his adoration for Sicheng under wraps.

Sicheng is usually invited to Precinct 127’s gatherings as Yuta’s plus-one, although he declines the invitation more often than not. In this case, Yuta’s the one hosting his own celebratory party, so Sicheng probably came to make sure that Yuta wouldn’t be celebrating alone.

Yuta’s entire guest list made sure to be in attendance, however. Probably because he promised to foot the tab at the end of the night, but still. Having drinks together after work is never an easy feat because at least a portion of them, if not all of them, will be working the next day.

“He called me three times in the span of, what, 10 minutes… just to tell me the news,” Sicheng says, tracing one of his fingers over the rim of his beer.

“That’s very cute,” Johnny coos, holding up his own beer. “Let’s drink to Yuta!”

Sicheng lifts his glass as he rolls his eyes. “It’d be cuter if I could understand Japanese. And if I wasn’t in the middle of a chase.”

Mark raises his martini as they all attempt to clink their glasses with each other’s in cheers. He’s not usually this adventurous with his drinks but he heard Taeyong say that cocktails won’t get him as drunk as quickly, so he decided on a simple dry martini (although Ten kept egging him on to get Sex on the Beach—Doyoung called Ten a “basic bitch” for that).

“But you love it when I ‘speak Naruto’,” Yuta teases, clearly already tipsy. He’s had more drinks than everyone at the table combined, so it would be surprising if he isn’t. “Now, Mark. I see you’re still on that stupid martini. Can someone get Mark another drink please?”

“I don’t think—” Mark’s about to argue, but Jaehyun pushes his pint of beer into his hands from across the table. “Oh, thanks.”

“I’m buying anyway. Can you all drink more so this feels more like a celebration?”

There are scattered conversations happening around the long table as Mark takes a sip of Jaehyun’s beer. It’s lukewarm by now, and Mark tries not to cringe at how the liquid feels against his lips. There’s about half a glass left, so Mark decides to cut his torture short by gulping everything down in one go. He catches Sicheng’s eye when he finishes and the latter gestures towards the bar with a nod, implying that Mark should go get another drink.

Well, if Sicheng insists.

Mark leans against the bar after asking for a pint of beer in a chilled glass, sighing as he looks back towards his coworkers’ table not far from where he’s standing. It’s a good night and they’re good company, but he’s so tired. He’s been exhausted for awhile now, actually.

But it’s just in Mark’s nature to persevere. He works hard even when it drains him to. His career is his passion, anyway, and having a night like this to let loose with a couple of drinks helps make the process easier in the long run.

“Long night?” Someone says from behind him, and Mark immediately whips his head over to see Yukhei leaning against the bar as well, squinting at the menu. “Can I get a Shirley Temple please?”

Mark snorts, resting his elbows on the surface of the counter as he leans his back against it so he can survey his surroundings as he waits for his order. “A Shirley Temple? Really?” Mark asks, watching as Jaehyun takes out his phone to show everyone around the table something on it.

“What Yuta doesn’t know won’t kill him. I had a beer earlier anyway.”

Mark turns to receive his beer when the bartender slides it towards him, taking a tentative sip from the glass as he studies Yukhei’s face. “Are you a lightweight?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

Yukhei lets out an audible gasp of offence as he widens his eyes at Mark. “Excuse me?” he exclaims, cooling his expression when he nods to the bartender in thanks as his drink is brought to him. “I’m the king of drinking games. Not only because I’m good at playing the games, but because my tolerance is great too.”

“Of course.”

“You don’t believe me?”

Mark shakes his head, setting his beer back on the counter. “You don’t give me a lot of reason to trust you nowadays.”

“Well… how about I teach you a drinking game I learnt in Hong Kong?”

Mark points at Yukhei’s Shirley Temple as he blinks at him, and Yukhei seems to get what Mark’s trying to say because he only laughs in response. “That’s not fair now, is it?” Mark counters, not keen on playing the game if he’s the only one who has something to lose.

“Beer’s not a big deal anyway,” Yukhei says, nudging Mark’s arm with an elbow. “Come on. I’m not even good at _chai mui_. It’s the game I’m worst at. I’ll order myself a beer after you manage to make me finish this drink.”

Mark should’ve known to say no judging from the way Yukhei’s eyes glint mischievously under the dim lighting in the bar. There’s also a smirk on Yukhei’s face that spells unadulterated trouble. As a detective, Mark should’ve picked up on these obvious cues, and honestly, maybe he does pick up on them. He just chooses to ignore the signs.

It’s easier to play along with Yukhei’s games because he’d spend the remainder of his night convincing Mark to play with him otherwise. And that’s almost worse than simply going along with it now.

If this ‘ _chai mui_ ’ game is a drinking game Yukhei claims to be bad at, there’s no way that Mark won’t be able to beat him at it.

 

That’s where Mark is wrong. Mark loses. He loses tremendously.

It’s a simple predictive game that Mark can’t really comprehend anymore now that he’s shit-faced drunk (in Taeil’s words), but the game is what it is. Simple. Somehow, Mark manages to lose round after round to Yukhei and Yukhei hasn’t even finished his Shirley Temple at the end of Mark’s second pint.

Their little game at the bar caused so much ruckus that the guys around the table eventually abandoned their seats to watch them play over at the bar, and Mark can’t forget the chorus of groans and boos that he received after losing five rounds in a row to Yukhei. That really hurt his pride. Also, Yukhei’s self-satisfied grin is now perpetually burnt into his mind, and that only makes it all the worse.

Mark should’ve guessed that he’d bomb the drinking game from the beginning. He’s never been good at playing games and everyone he knows has told him that at least once throughout their friendship. Yukhei, however, doesn’t tease him about that and instead suggests that they wrap up for the night when he notices the first inkling of Mark reaching his limit with alcohol.

Mark hasn’t really considered what makes it obvious whenever he gets drunk—is it the flush he gets on his neck? Is it the slur in his speech? Or is it the way he has trouble supporting his own weight and has to use someone else as a pillar?

“It’s a combination of all three,” Mark hears Yukhei say from right beside him, suddenly realising that he asked that question out loud. “ _And_ the fact that you can’t stop talking about how drunk you are.”

Mark mumbles something that sounds incoherent even to his own ears. He doesn’t even know what he says because he lets the words fall out of his mouth without processing them in his head. He’s being guided somewhere by Yukhei’s strong arms, and there’s no doubt in his mind that his face is currently pressed against Yukhei’s chest as the latter ushers him along. “Where are we going?” Mark manages to ask despite the cloudiness in his head.

He kind of tuned out after his third beer, and everything stopped looking right after his second shot of vodka.

Mark feels petulant when Yukhei doesn’t reply, so he uses one fist to hit against Yukhei’s chest as he halts his footsteps, refusing to move from his spot. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me where we’re going.”

“Home, Mark. We’re going home,” Yukhei sighs, attempting to tug Mark by the arm once more but Mark continues resisting him.

“Home? Whose home? We don’t live together.” Mark can’t detach himself from Yukhei properly so he can’t see the look on Yukhei’s face as he speaks.

There’s a short gap of silence before Yukhei sighs once more, and before Mark knows it, he’s being hoisted up onto Yukhei’s shoulder like a bag of rice. “Stop asking questions, Detective Lee. You’re hardly in the right state of mind to be performing an interrogation,” Yukhei chides with a slight hint of amusement laced in his tone.

Mark lazily kicks in protest. “Oh, come on. This is kidnapping!” he yells, trying and failing to get out of Yukhei’s hold.

Yukhei sets him down into the passenger seat of his car, and he accidentally bangs Mark’s head against the roof of the door when he’s putting him down. “Oops,” Yukhei exclaims when Mark shrieks in surprise. He reaches over to rub at the top of Mark’s head for awhile. “Sorry. I forgot that you’re a bit bigger than a baby.”

“A _bit_ bigger?”

“A _lot_ bigger.”

Mark doesn’t miss the trace of a smile playing on Yukhei’s lips as he puts on Mark’s seatbelt for him before closing the door. Mark stares at him when he buckles himself in after starting the ignition.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Yukhei says, putting the car in drive to pull out of his parking spot. He shoots Mark a glance before looking straight at the road. “You’re making me nervous.”

“Why?”

Yukhei doesn’t say anything for awhile as he focuses solely on the quiet street before them, both his hands set firmly on the steering wheel. “You’re looking at me like…” he drawls off, and Mark sees his fingers tighten against the wheel. “I don’t know. Just stop looking at me, okay? Go to sleep or something.”

Mark was feeling sluggish prior to being kidnapped into Yukhei’s car, but now that he’s caught something that Yukhei wants to hide from him, he’s not going to let it go. He’s wide awake now and he feels like he can see everything. He continues blinking at Yukhei, refusing to look away. “Like what?”

“Stop asking.”

“Oh!” Mark exclaims when he feels his phone buzz in his pocket. He clumsily feels his pockets for his phone and checks the notification when he takes it out. “Oh…”

This is awkward. It’s by no means early in the night anymore, and the text message he just received is one of the last things he expected to see tonight. No, it’s the last thing he expected to see in his entire lifetime. This is _so_ awkward.

Why did _Kang Daniel_ send Mark a text message?

Are Mark’s eyes failing him or does the preview of the message say “ _Hi Mark! This is Kang Daniel…_ ” with various emojis that Mark can’t quite make out in his daze?

Mark realises that he’s been thinking out loud again when Yukhei speaks.

“Throw the phone away,” Yukhei scolds, glaring at Mark. “Don’t engage with Kang Daniel.”

Mark opens his mouth to protest, but he decides against it because it’ll be more fun to mess with Yukhei via action now that Yukhei’s busy driving. Mark giggles to himself as he clicks into the message to read it in detail. “‘ _Hi Mark! This is Kang Daniel. I was wondering if you_ ’—”

“Give me that.”

“—Hey!”

Yukhei reaches over to grab Mark’s phone and throws it to the backseat, where the phone collides with the back of the seat before falling onto the cushions with a muffled thud. “Sit still, Mark. You won’t be able to reach it strapped into your seat.”

“What’d you do that for?” Mark huffs, crossing his arms after he fails to reach his phone. If his movements weren’t so uncoordinated, he’d try unbuckling his seatbelt. Sadly, Mark can’t even find the buckle to free himself. “Maybe he wants to tell me something!”

“That’s highly unlikely.”

“You’re being mean.”

Yukhei laughs, signalling with his blinker before he makes an exit into a smaller road Mark vaguely remembers as the one leading to his apartment. “Me? I’m mean?” Yukhei questions as if this is news to him. “You don’t know how wrong you are, Mark.”

They fall silent as Mark resorts to pouting due to the loss of his phone. Yukhei’s being unreasonable and he knows it. What’s it to Yukhei if Daniel wants to talk to him, anyway? Daniel might have something important that he wants to tell him.

Oh, this is about the bet, isn’t it? Yukhei’s trying to stop Mark from cracking the case because of the bet.

Mark hears Yukhei snicker and he supposes that he’s spoken his inner monologue aloud once more. Well, there’s no denial from Yukhei’s end… so it must be true.

“The bet is stupid,” Yukhei states, stopping before a traffic light. He takes the opportunity to turn to poke Mark in the arm. “I don’t really care for it, if we’re being honest.”

Mark is only able to catch a glimpse of Yukhei’s expression before the latter is driving again when the light turns green. Yukhei doesn’t care about the bet? That can’t be right. If Yukhei doesn’t care for it, then why is he trying to stop Mark from getting an edge in the case?

That doesn’t make any sense. _Yukhei_ doesn’t make any sense.

Mark hopes he remembers this in the morning.

Mark is shaken out of his reverie of contemplating the bet and everything in between when Yukhei leans over—far too close for comfort—and reaches a hand over to his face. Mark quickly swats it away. “Hey! Quit it,” Mark snaps, shrinking back into his seat as he sees the shocked look on Yukhei’s face. “Now is not the time to kiss me.”

This seems to catch Yukhei by surprise as he collapses back into his seat. “What?” Yukhei asks.

A drunk Mark is far more likely to speak his mind than a sober Mark, which can be a positive or a negative depending on the situation. In this case, Mark doesn’t really know yet. All he knows is that he has a severe impairment in his brain-to-mouth filter currently.

Yukhei suddenly starts laughing. He laughter is so loud that it becomes the only thing Mark can hear in the car.

“Why are you laughing?” Mark looks around, realising that the car is parked right outside of his apartment complex. The same spot that Yukhei dropped him off at the last time he drove him home. “I literally just stopped you from kissing me.”

Yukhei is still laughing and he struggles to speak in between breaths. “I wasn’t… going to… kiss you…”

“But you leaned over and tried to touch my face!”

Yukhei composes himself well enough to vocalise a sentence without interruption. “Yes, because I was trying to take off your seatbelt for you and I didn’t want it to smack you in the face when it retracts,” he explains, his chuckles dying down slowly as he comes back to himself.

“Oh,” Mark mutters, and is that a little bit of disappointment he detects in his own voice? “ _Oh_ ,” he tries again. Okay, better. He sounds more firm now.

He’s not disappointed that Yukhei wasn’t thinking of making a move on him per se, but what did Yukhei mean by laughing that hysterically over the whole idea of kissing Mark? Is the very notion of planting his lips onto Mark’s so despicable that he finds it a complete joke? That’s offensive.

Mark’s offended. He can’t stop himself from jutting his lower lip out a bit. “It’s not like I wanted to kiss your stupid pretty boy face anyway,” Mark retorts sharply.

That effectively shuts Yukhei up for awhile because Yukhei doesn’t have anything to say to that for quite some time. When he does speak, however, what comes out of his mouth isn’t what Mark expects to hear. “You think my face is pretty?” he asks, and Mark sees him shift in his seat to angle his body towards Mark’s now. “Pretty boy, huh?”

Mark feels all the blood that previously warmed his face rush downwards as he pales. “Uh, what?”

Yukhei is smirking. There’s definitely a smirk on his face. “You think I’m pretty,” he says, and he reaches a hand over to trace a finger down a side of Mark’s face now. “That’s cute.”

 _Oh my God_. Is Yukhei flirting with him? Holy shit. Wong Yukhei is flirting with _Mark_.

His annoying partner in detective work, who also happens to be drop dead gorgeous yet the worst person in the world, is flirting with him in his car.

“Like hell I do,” Mark grits out between his teeth as he narrows his eyes at Yukhei. Okay, maybe that’s a lie. Mark’s always found Yukhei rather attractive, especially when all his negative traits are subtracted.

What _are_ Yukhei’s bad points again?

Mark internally vows to never touch another drink.

“Okay, let’s be fair,” Yukhei says, his voice dipping down an octave to make it unbelievably low. Even lower than it initially was, which was already quite deep. “You think I’m a pretty boy and I suppose you’re not too bad yourself. You’re… _cute_.”

Mark doesn’t know what to do with that information. He is only using his senses purely as a means of getting by. He’s not really processing anything for the time being. “You think I’m cute?” he asks, against his better judgement. What does it matter if Yukhei thinks he’s cute anyway? _Get a grip of yourself, Mark Lee!_

“Mhmm.”

Maybe it’s the alcohol. Mark really wants to think that it’s the alcohol clouding his rationality and dampening his impulse control. He _really_ hopes that’s it, because what he’s going to do next is going to be incredibly difficult to reason with his fully conscious self otherwise. “That’s nice.”

The next thing Mark knows, he’s managed to unbuckle his own seatbelt and he’s leaning forward, his hands finding themselves at the back of Yukhei’s head as he pulls Yukhei towards him to crush their lips together.

It’s a rough first kiss, if Mark wants to think about it. He doesn’t. Not really. So he lets his body do whatever it wants with minimal interruption from his brain. His lips move against Yukhei’s harshly as Yukhei wraps his arms around the small of his back. There’s a whole mess of tongue and teeth, and it’s messy but somehow satisfying all the same.

The handle of the gear stick is poking Mark’s leg from the side uncomfortably, and Mark decides to rid himself of that distraction by climbing over it. He miraculously manoeuvres himself out of his seat without breaking their kiss for more than a few milliseconds at a time, smoothly and successfully moving himself onto Yukhei’s lap in no more than two separate movements.

Yoga isn’t just an activity used to destress.

“Whoa,” Yukhei mutters against his lips, clearly in awe. “That was—”

Mark shushes him by force, letting his hands roam up to grab fistfuls of Yukhei’s hair as he licks into his mouth. “Shut up,” he says, taking Yukhei’s plush lips in his once more.

Yukhei is obedient. He continues kissing Mark without acknowledging how he was interrupted mid-sentence. He splays his large, _large_ hands over each of Mark’s thighs, gripping at the muscles there tightly as he pulls Mark’s body closer to his.

It’s not until they run out of breath that one of them realises what they’re doing. Mark can’t be sure who comes back to their senses first, but they’re both panting and looking into each other’s eyes like they’ll find an answer to _why_ this just happened.

“Oh my God,” Mark hisses to himself, blinking rapidly when he notices Yukhei’s eyes fixated on him.

Yukhei’s pupils are dilated and blown, and there’s an exaggerated rise and fall in his chest as he breathes as if he just ran a whole marathon. “Oh my God is right,” he echoes, loosening his grip on Mark’s legs.

Mark wants to throw himself out of the car, but he knows that he won’t die from falling out of a stationary vehicle. “Okay,” he drawls, trying to ease the tension and the awkwardness. There’s a residue of something sickly sweet at the back of his mouth. Yukhei’s Shirley Temple. “ _Shit_.”

“Let’s get you out of here,” Yukhei calmly supplies, and he opens the door before his hands grip Mark’s, gently supporting Mark’s weight as Mark stumbles out of the car. “We’ll forget all about this in the morning.”

“Right!” Mark agrees, finding a skip in his step as he walks down the walkway towards the building. “That’s right. We’ll forget everything in the morning…”

Yukhei is tailing right behind him, but he stops when Mark turns and waves him away.

“I can handle myself,” Mark announces, patting himself on the chest twice. “Go home, Yukhei! _Go home_.”

Yukhei looks ready to protest, but he deflates slightly when Mark shoots him a look. “Um, okay,” he says, sticking his hands into his pockets. “You walk. I’ll leave when you get into the building.”

Mark nods, turning around confidently. He puts one foot in front of the other, mindful of any cracks in the flooring. “Goodnight, Wong!” he shouts without looking back, fumbling in his pocket for an access card before realising that the door to the building opens with a code. He chuckles to himself. “Goodbye, Yukhei!”

He doesn’t look back to catch Yukhei’s sigh. And he also doesn’t see how Yukhei only climbs back into his car after he’s certain that Mark’s made it into the lift safely.

 

* * *

 

Mark wakes up on time by some grace of God. He feels fine, too. There’s a heaviness that’s perpetually weighing down on his head, but otherwise there’s no pounding headache or nausea plaguing him. It’s one of the mildest hangovers he has ever experienced, and he holds himself back from celebrating when he realises that he still has to report in for work.

He washes up as per usual and takes a longer shower than he does on typical days, making sure that he scrubs off all the grime and dirt that he feels on his skin because he accidentally fell asleep directly after returning home the night before. He brushes his teeth twice as hard, making sure to get all the areas plaque could potentially build up in.

He’s not taking any chances after missing a brush last night.

His morning routine passes by breezily. Mark hasn’t felt this accomplished first thing in the morning since his first day at the force. He’s still deadly tired, make no mistake, but there’s something that’s just _great_ about this morning.

That feeling promptly curls up and dies at the back of Mark’s throat when he arrives at the station. He takes one look at Yukhei—laughing and bumping shoulders with Taeyong—and that’s all it takes for images from last night’s incident to come flooding into his mind.

Oh dear God, Mark _kissed_ Yukhei last night.

Mark wants to dig a hole six feet deep into the ground, crawl into said hole, and cover it back up with dirt so he never has to see the light of day again.

It doesn’t help that Yukhei catches him standing there at the double doors and immediately waves him over with one large hand—a very large hand that was once settled on Mark’s thigh—and a wide grin on his face. Oh no. Is Yukhei beckoning him to go over so that they can both laugh about what happened last night in front of Taeyong?

No. That’s not going to happen.

Mark would rather _die_ than let anyone else find out about what happened yesterday.

“Mark! Just the man we were talking about!” Taeyong calls, opening his arms wide as a gesture for Mark to approach them. “Come over! Oh my God, we have so much to discuss.”

Mark shoots Jaehyun a frantic look, but Jaehyun only shrugs noncommittally from his desk. So Jaehyun doesn’t know. Otherwise Jaehyun would probably be breathing down Mark’s neck by now, listing off each and every one of Mark’s other episodes of embarrassment to date.

Although Mark would rather jump off a cliff than walk over to them, he gathers the bravery and strides over with confident steps. He nods as a greeting to the two men before him, and they’re still chuckling when he halts at Taeyong’s desk, one hand gripping onto his flask of coffee tightly.

“Do you remember anything that happened last night?” Taeyong asks, giggling gleefully. There’s something sinister about the way he’s so happy about all of this.

Mark is _suffering_ and Taeyong, who claims to be his guardian and protector, is _laughing_ at him? In front of Yukhei, no less?

Yukhei, too, is absolutely _batshit crazy_ for telling Taeyong about what Mark did in his drunken stupor. Does he think that it’s funny to run around and spread anecdotes regarding others’ drunken escapades? It’s rude, that’s what it is.

Mark gulps, and his bolus of saliva makes an audible noise as it hits the back of his throat on its way down. “Nope,” he croaks out, hoping to preserve whatever sliver of dignity he has left. If he denies any memory of whatever happened last night, he can avoid a lot of humiliation in the future.

It’ll be passed off as another one of the funny “Mark is a lightweight” stories. Jaehyun first named this collection of episodes when Mark had a little too much to drink, and it’s stuck with the precinct ever since. The stories seem to increase in number every time Mark as much as takes a sip of alcohol, and he’s swore off drinking more times than he can count by now.

Yukhei nudges Taeyong with his elbow, shaking his head as he smiles. “Stop teasing him,” he says to Taeyong. “He had a rough enough night.”

There’s that voice. The same voice that called Mark cute just hours before, and the same voice that hummed whenever Mark tugged tighter on his hair. _Fuck_. Mark’s going to be thinking about that kiss every time he as much as _looks_ at Yukhei now, isn’t he?

He cursed himself to an eternity of replays because he works with Yukhei and he’s going to carry this shame on his back like a scarlet letter for the rest of his career—

“Just look for yourself,” Taeyong finally stops being as vague and gives it to Mark straight. He _literally_ gives it to Mark. It’s his phone.

“This is a video,” Mark deadpans, staring at the screen.

“Yeah, play it.”

Mark does. Well, he can’t say that he’s surprised at what he sees. It’s a video of Mark trying to climb onto the bar as Sicheng physically attempts to restrain him by grabbing him by the waist. Johnny and Ten each have one of his ankles in their hands as they try to pull him down.

It somehow doesn’t work, because in the next few seconds, Mark is standing on the bar and he’s _singing_. He’s belting out a song from High School Musical at the top of his lungs as he urges for everyone to join him. No one but Jaehyun does.

“I’ve seen enough,” Mark quickly stops the video. He lets out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding. So this is it? “Thank God.”

Taeyong’s in a fit of laughter as he kicks his legs. “This video is golden,” he cackles, slapping Yukhei’s thigh repeatedly as he laughs. “Top three worst ‘Mark is a lightweight’ videos. Only second to the one of him lying in a booth next to Yuta while they tried to solve math problems together.” Taeyong helpfully offers to forward Yukhei that video later because the latter wasn’t a part of their team yet at the time of incidence.

“I’m going to go put my things away, TY,” Mark says, hurriedly shuffling away before he spontaneously combusts just from being in Yukhei’s presence.

His escape plan is a weak one, however, because Yukhei merely excuses himself from Taeyong to follow Mark to his desk. “Did you sleep well last night?” Yukhei asks, leaning languidly against Mark’s table as Mark settles into his workspace.

“Oh, very well, yes.”

“And you’re not hungover?”

Mark looks up, unintentionally meeting Yukhei’s concerned gaze. “No,” he quickly dismisses the eye contact, fumbling with his thermos flask. “I’m fine.”

Yukhei doesn’t seem particularly bothered about Mark’s refusal to acknowledge whatever happened between them last night. He actually seems quite content to keep the topic out of the way. “That’s good.”

Mark clears his throat. “Um… did you need something?”

“No, not really.”

Mark takes a sip of his coffee and it scalds his tongue. Okay, maybe later.

“You’re really impatient, aren’t you?”

Mark sighs, blinking up at Yukhei slowly as he sets the flask down on the table. “Are you sure you don’t need anything?” he asks once more, readying himself for Yukhei to confront him about the kiss in the middle of the precinct. He’s really going to die of embarrassment then.

“No, I suppose I don’t,” Yukhei responds easily, pushing himself off of Mark’s desk. “I’ll go check if there are any new leads on the case, otherwise I’ll get Johnny to assign us something for the day.”

Mark nods, watching as Yukhei walks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a shorter chapter but we’re at the half-point for our romcom couple lmao... (pls anticipate the next chapter because it’s honestly my favourite part i wrote this whole fic!! i’m super excited to share it next week!)
> 
> twt: [@lucashaeyadwae](http://twitter.com/lucashaeyadwae)


	4. Chapter 4

Mark’s relationship with Yukhei takes on another layer over the weeks. Where their playful banter used to be all snark and snappy remarks, it’s now overlaid by something _deeper_. Maybe it’s all in Mark’s imagination, but everything’s not like it used to be anymore.

There’s something different about the way Mark feels whenever Yukhei is being too handsy. He used to swat Yukhei’s hands away quickly in annoyance, feeling some sort of irritation creep under his skin whenever Yukhei’s fingers linger for too long, but now… there’s a very obvious _lag_ before Mark’s fight or flight mode kicks in.

He lets Yukhei’s hands stay where they are until his body makes a conscious decision to reject the advance. That’s when Mark’s shrugging or wriggling comes into action.

They still mutually pretend that their kiss didn’t happen, so Mark can’t do anything about the increasingly maddening situations that they seem to find themselves in.

Sometimes he’s the only one in a room with Yukhei—given that they are _partners_ —and it feels suffocating. It’s like the four walls of the room are closing in on him, and Yukhei suddenly feels far too close for either of them to feel comfortable. But in actuality, Yukhei might be seated a whole foot away, and it’s just Mark’s paranoia that’s speaking to him.

It’s like Mark’s suddenly developed some sort of claustrophobia only applicable to Wong Yukhei. Yukhei could be within a five-mile radius of him and he’d still find Yukhei _too close_.

That’s probably why it feels like someone’s gripping tightly onto Mark’s windpipe when he’s forced to sit in a car with Yukhei for a stakeout at an ungodly hour of the night. Mark feels the air being forced out of his lungs with every passing minute that they spend in silence, praying and wishing that this torture will end soon.

Yukhei got a tip regarding one of The Double Dragon’s more infamous branches of work—human trafficking. It’s lightyears ahead of the smuggling, dealing, and illegal trading cases that they’ve been handling so far. It’s practically unheard of in their precinct’s history, because they’re not exactly the hub for the most notorious gangs. Until now, of course.

It’s a lot of pressure on the both of their shoulders, but like any other case they receive as a duo, Mark seems to bear the brunt of the stress.

Mark felt all the blood drain from his body and seep into the ground when Yukhei first uttered the two words to him. _Human trafficking_? In their part of town?

It made waves in the station, and soon they were forced to set up a special tasks force that will monitor all activity over the piers and harbours to ensure that no ships are docked without prior documentation, and no containers are to be delivered or sent without notice. It’s going to be a tedious operation that Mark foresees will be carried out for the rest of the week at the least.

They’re not going to dismiss the news of something as cruel and inhumane as this. Even if the tip ends up being a hoax, Mark is sure that whatever work they put into the case will be worth it.

It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Being in a car together with Yukhei on the peak of a hill overlooking the pier makes Mark feel very sorry, however. Especially when said car is the same car where they both shared something that they haven’t spoken about since.

Mark wonders if Audis come with ejection seats.

Yukhei doesn’t seem as antsy as Mark. He’s leaning back against the leather cushion of his headrest with his hands resting in his lap as he looks out of the window through hooded eyelids. He’s tired and bored and it shows. He hasn’t been his talkative self as of late, however, so that throws Mark off the edge a bit.

Mark doesn’t want to be the one who initiates conversation, though, so he only basks in the rare opportunity of silence that Yukhei allows him.

It doesn’t last very long.

“Do you think gathering everyone out here was the right thing to do?” Yukhei asks, looking deep in thought as he blinks slowly without turning to look at Mark.

Mark stares at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Yukhei sighs, running a hand through his hair. “We have a whole team of people on standby when we don’t even know if anything’s going to happen. What are we going to do if nothing happens tonight? Just tell everyone to go home?”

This might be one of the first times that Mark has seen Yukhei actually take something as seriously as he does. Mark is usually the uptight counterpart in their duo, wishing he could micromanage every single thing even though he knows for a fact that he can’t; Yukhei is the fun-loving one, thriving on adrenaline rushes and putting aside the rest.

Yukhei sounds like he’s absorbed some of Mark’s tendency to worry tonight.

“I don’t know,” is Mark’s less-than-intelligent reply. He doesn’t know what to say other than to tell Yukhei the truth.

It’s their first time leading a special task force and heading an operation. Is it embarrassing for them to take every tip they receive seriously? Will it be humiliating when they tell everyone to disperse after a whole night of waiting only for the info to be proven false? Mark really doesn’t know.

There isn’t a manual for detective work. Everyone makes their own decisions based on experience. Johnny didn’t object when they pitched the idea for the stakeout to him, so a “failed stakeout” probably isn’t out of the ordinary.

It might be a hard pill to swallow and a wound to their pride, but Mark still stands by the notion that being precautionary is tenfolds better than having to fix something in the future. Especially when it comes to a case that deals with human lives—there’s no way that they can fix that. So Mark tells Yukhei that, in the least words possible, hoping that he doesn’t sound like a nerd.

Yukhei doesn’t say anything in response at first. He only purses his lips into a thin line as he continues looking out of the window, obviously deep in thought. When he throws his head back to glance over at Mark, the streetlight they’re parked near to illuminates his sharp features as he blinks slowly.

“What?” Mark asks, squirming slightly.

Yukhei smiles. “Nothing,” he says.

Mark scoffs loudly.

Yukhei repositions himself in his seat, his gaze still fixated on Mark as he moves. “Hmm,” he hums as he sits up, reaching a long arm over to open the glove box. He pulls out a bag of sour gummy candies and throws it into Mark’s lap.

Mark looks at the bag of candy on his legs.

“You like sour gummies, right?” Yukhei asks, taking it upon himself to open the bag when he realises that Mark’s probably going to idly watch the sweets as if they’d move themselves. He pulls the plastic package apart with ease, holding the opened bag to Mark. “These are extra sour.”

Mark reaches for one, jutting his lower lip out a bit when he realises that he got a yellow one. He wanted a red piece. “Thanks,” he mutters anyway, popping it into his mouth.

He didn’t think that Yukhei would pay enough attention to know what kind of candy he likes best. Especially not when he’s never explicitly announced that sour gummy bears are his favourite sweets to trigger a late night sugar rush to help keep him awake.

It’s kind of touching, in a way, that Yukhei noted that little bit of Mark’s preference and committed it to memory.

“Hey, Mark,” Yukhei speaks up, casually drumming his fingers against his thigh. “Why’d you become a detective?”

Mark is surprised by the question, but he tries to give Yukhei an honest answer without being too detailed about it. He still feels awkward whenever he has to explain his choice in occupation to people. “Well…” he drawls, receiving a red gummy bear that Yukhei passes to him. “I wanted to do something challenging. And I liked the concept of justice. Attending the police academy just… seemed right at the time.”

Yukhei nods, smiling to himself. “Huh. That sounds a lot better than just wanting to hold a gun, isn’t it?” He chuckles lightly.

“Can I ask you something?” Mark suddenly feels brave enough to ask a question that’s always been at the back of his mind.

He sees Yukhei’s eyes widen as he bites off the head to a green gummy bear between his fingers. He throws the whole bear into his mouth, chewing slowly. “Uh, yeah?”

“Why’d you transfer precincts?”

The rumours that Mark has heard over the year flood into his mind. There has been talk in the early days that Yukhei had to move on from Precinct 116 because he had _history_ with almost every other person in the station and it was getting too chaotic to keep him there. Then there was also whispers of Yukhei making a huge blunder out of an important case, but the lieutenant, Kun, managed to pull some strings to transfer Yukhei to Precinct 127 without incident.

But every other story Mark has heard being circulated around their station seems to have one large loophole in all of them—the fact that Yukhei doesn’t strike Mark as that type of person.

Mark never took the time to ask around about the truth behind Yukhei’s transfer, but he’s sure that no one else would really know to begin with. Plus, it’s always better to go straight to the source. There’s no point listening to stories that may have salt and pepper added to them.

He never thought that he’d ever ask Yukhei this, though.

The question has entered his mind in passing a few times, but he’s never entertained the idea of actually verbalising it to Yukhei’s face. Partly because Mark is afraid of infringing on Yukhei’s privacy, and partly because he’s not sure of what Yukhei’s answer will be.

Yukhei doesn’t seem offended that Mark asked him this question. He only sets the bag of gummy bears down next to his gear stick, tossing a red gummy into his mouth after. “It’s a long story.”

Mark raises an eyebrow.

“But we’ve got all night, don’t we?” Yukhei adds as an afterthought.

“You don’t have to tell me if it’s private… I’m sorry I asked,” Mark quickly says, wondering if he’s crossed a line. “I’m sorry if—”

“Hey, chill out,” Yukhei interjects, shutting Mark up. “It’s cool. I don’t mind letting you know. I just don’t know how to say it yet.”

This flicks the panic switch in Mark’s mind on. If Yukhei doesn’t know how to word whatever happened, does this mean that Mark will be the first person to know? The first person who’s unrelated to the issue to know, of course.

What if it’s something Mark wishes he didn’t learn about Yukhei?

It’s too late. The floodgates have been opened. Mark can’t tell Yukhei to stop talking now without looking like a fool.

“I took a boy in from a youth centre,” Yukhei starts, and it’s completely different to what Mark expected to fall out of his mouth. Mark’s surprise seems to be apparent because Yukhei chuckles quietly before continuing. “And, um, it’s kind of complicated, but he goes to school in the area here and I didn’t want him to have to transfer schools so…”

“Huh?” Mark asks, a little bit lost. “Wait, you took in a child? What about his parents?”

“I told you it’s a long story,” Yukhei groans, rubbing his hand over his face. “Chenle… his name is Chenle, by the way. Chenle got into a bit of trouble with his family and I met him at a youth centre.”

Yukhei met Chenle after responding to a call from the local police due to reports of a teenager loitering about in a youth centre for the past few weeks. Chenle refused to talk to the uniformed officers, claiming that he only speaks Mandarin, and they requested for help from the nearby precincts. Eventually, Yukhei was called to the scene.

After Yukhei spoke to Chenle, he immediately felt a brotherly sense of responsibility for the young boy. They clicked like siblings who grew up together, and Chenle opened up about why he wouldn’t go home to Yukhei. Upon hearing Chenle’s story, Yukhei only knew of one way to help him.

Chenle couldn’t stay overnight at the youth centre because he was a minor and he had to have a guardian if not his parents. It was a complicated decision, but Yukhei decided to take Chenle in to act as his temporary guardian until he turned 18 in a couple of months’ time. Yukhei couldn’t bear to think of Chenle living on the streets alone to begin with.

“I had to transfer precincts because he went to school in the area,” Yukhei explains, a fond smile on his face as he talks about Chenle. “I didn’t want him to have to transfer schools because I know how tough it is to adjust to new environments, especially as a kid… heck, I moved here when I was 12 and the first few months were terrible. So I moved for him.”

Mark feels guilty now that Yukhei’s reason for transferring from Precinct 116 are in the open. So Yukhei’s transfer wasn’t a punishment, and neither was it an escape from soured personal relationships amongst his colleagues. He feels bad that he believed the rumours for even a second.

Yukhei did it to protect a young boy.

“How is Chenle now?” Mark asks, his voice sounding small even to him.

“Oh, he’s doing awesome,” Yukhei exclaims as he sits straighter. “He actually moved out just a week ago to attend police academy. His birthday was a few days ago, too, so he’s finally an adult now.”

“Sounds like you rubbed off on him. To enter law enforcement, I mean.”

Yukhei laughs, scratching the back of his head. Mark notes how there’s a slight tint to his cheeks under the streetlight. “I’m not sure,” he’s smiling as he says this, clearly very proud of Chenle. “I certainly hope so.”

Mark instantly feels happy on Yukhei’s behalf. There’s a whole mess of emotions swirling in his head as he mimics the grin on Yukhei’s face, feeling his chest warm at the thought of a young boy following in Yukhei’s footsteps because he respects him that much.

Yukhei pulls out his phone to show Mark pictures from Chenle’s graduation ceremony not too long ago. Chenle has cherub-like cheeks to pair with his crinkly-eyed smile, and in most pictures he’s hugging Yukhei from the side as they both laugh together.

“I’m sorry,” Mark whispers as he stares at a particular picture of Chenle’s arms wrapped around a teddy bear with a square academic cap on its head.

Yukhei turns to look at him, confused. “Huh?”

“I didn’t know this was why you transferred here… I assumed it was for something worse. Much worse.”

Instead of being displeased with this new set of information, Yukhei actually looks relieved. “Oh, you had me worried for a second there,” he breathes out, shaking his head. “It’s okay. I’ve heard lots of different things going around about my transfer. At least you know the truth now.”

“Why not tell anyone?”

It seems unusual to Mark that Yukhei would let such malicious gossip continue to circulate in the force when his transfer is for something so noble. It’s unfair that people have been drawing their own inferences on Yukhei’s actions when the truth is a far cry from something negative. Mark feels terrible that he was previously one of those people, and he doesn’t see why Yukhei wouldn’t want to clear the air to salvage his reputation.

Sure, Yukhei is known for being a stellar detective, but people have been painting him as someone with a messy personal life without really knowing the truth.

Yukhei shrugs. “I don’t really care what people think of me,” he replies, reaching forward to ruffle the hair on Mark’s head as he beams down at him. “Besides, all the people who matter know now.”

Mark can only dumbly watch as Yukhei settles back into his seat, sticking his hand into the bag of gummy bears to take a handful into his palm.

Yukhei stares out the window again after, lazily popping a gummy bear into his mouth as he surveys the pier.

What did Yukhei mean when he said “the people who matter”? Does Mark… _matter_? Is that what it means?

Mark is left to ponder that question in silence as they both resume their primary objective of carrying out the stakeout. Mark looks out the window, his eyebrows furrowed together as the same four words loop in his mind again and again.

Mark wonders if anyone else knows.

There isn’t any activity down at the docks that night, but it doesn’t matter.

 

* * *

 

On the last day of the stakeout, Mark passes Yukhei a gun holster. It’s made out of black leather for concealed carry, and it’s one of Mark’s many spares at home.

Yukhei looks at him quizzically with a raised eyebrow as they sit in the car in the same spot they’ve been parked in for the past week. He holds the holster up to his line of sight and squints at it, turning the object over in his hand. “What’s this for?” he finally asks after 30 seconds of confusion.

“Give it to Chenle,” Mark says quietly, hoping he doesn’t sound too corny. “To motivate him through police academy.”

Yukhei laughs, putting the holster in the backseat. “It’s going to be years before he’ll be able to carry,” he replies. “But thanks. I’ll let him know you gave it to him.”

Mark feels his cheeks warm as he rubs his palms against the material of his pants. “Well, my older brother gave me one when I was younger and it was a source of motivation for me during tough times. I want Chenle to feel encouraged, too.”

There’s a small smile plastered on Yukhei’s face when Mark looks up at him from under his eyelashes. “I’ll hold on to the holster, but you should meet Chenle. You can pass it to him personally.”

Mark felt a sort of fondness for Chenle immediately after Yukhei showed him his pictures. It’s inexplicable. Mark’s never had a younger brother of his own, but hearing Yukhei speak of Chenle with such pride in his tone made Mark feel like he knew the boy, too.

It’s ridiculous, but Mark wanted to give Chenle something to congratulate him for taking the first step into entering law enforcement. He remembers being incredibly excited when his brother gave him a holster during his early days of attending police academy. When the journey got difficult, he’d be reminded of that piece of equipment he held so dearly to him and push through.

He hopes to give Chenle a memento of sorts so he can have a tangible source of motivation too, if it’s not coming from his family.

Mark nods at Yukhei’s suggestion. “Oh, right,” Mark rummages through the bag he brought into the car, pulling out a packet of gummy worms. “This is for you.”

Yukhei scrunches up his nose as takes the sweets. “What? To add to my collection?” he teases, opening the bag immediately. “How’d you know I like gummy worms?”

“You like all kinds of sweets,” Mark deadpans, rolling his eyes. “You’re not that hard to figure out.”

“Huh.” Yukhei prods around the bag to pull out a red gummy worm. “You like the red ones the best, right?” He hands it to Mark, then proceeds to pull out a piece at random for himself.

Mark chews on the candy, blinking lazily out of the window after.

“Say…” Yukhei exclaims suddenly, chewing loudly with one side of his mouth. “Has… Has Kang Daniel been talking to you lately?”

Mark meets Yukhei’s gaze as he turns around. He can’t conceal the puzzlement on his face so he lets it show on his features. “What?” Kang Daniel, the realtor? Oh, right.

The last time Mark heard of the name Daniel was that night when he—well, it was on the night he doesn’t like talking about very much. Anyway, he let the text message completely slip his mind after, all thanks to the fact that he was drunk to the point where most things were easily forgettable on the night of incident.

“No,” he says after awhile, pulling out his phone. He should probably read that text message. It’s been weeks since it first appeared in his messages but he supposes that it’s not too late to find out what it said.

Yukhei clicks his tongue as he watches Mark tap on his phone screen. “Why don’t you do that later?” He plucks the phone from Mark’s hands and throws it into the backseat.

“Hey!”

“Does it matter what Kang Daniel has to say?”

Mark furrows his eyebrows as he squints his eyes at Yukhei. “What’s with you and Daniel anyway? You don’t even know the guy,” Mark huffs, irritated that Yukhei is trying to dictate who he can and cannot talk to just because he has a personal feud of some sort with Daniel.

What part does Mark play in their little problem? Mark has barely exchanged less than five sentences with Daniel to date, and most of the conversation they had happened on the day they were carrying out their undercover investigation. He was even _lying_ about his identity to Daniel then.

He doesn’t understand Yukhei’s blatant dislike for Daniel, however. From what Mark remembers, Daniel was quite civil to Yukhei while they were ‘house-hunting’. He can’t remember how Yukhei felt about Daniel after they wrapped up their day, but he doesn’t think that Yukhei disliked Daniel then as much as he does now. What happened in between?

“Well, I told you to stay away from him,” Yukhei simply says, passing another red gummy worm Mark’s way. “Now, eat. I don’t want you asking so many questions.”

“Wait a second…” Mark trails off as he nibbles on the tail of his candy. He reaches behind and grabs his phone from the backseat and he unlocks it immediately to look through his messages. He finds the one from Daniel.

“ _Hi, Mark! This is Kang Daniel. Are you available to talk? I’ve got something I want to tell you._ ” The message reads.

“Kang Daniel texted me because he wanted to tell me something about The Double Dragons, didn’t he,” Mark mutters, whipping his head over sharply to look at Yukhei. “And when I didn’t reply he talked to you. Daniel gave you the tip.”

Yukhei gulps, blinking blankly at Mark.

“Well?!”

“You’re only partially right…” Yukhei replies, taking a deep breath. “Technically, I approached Daniel first. Then he tipped me off.”

“You approached Daniel after you stopped me from talking to him?” Mark asks, bewildered. “Why?”

Yukhei shrugs. He looks slightly guilty, like a puppy that was caught making a mess of the house. His large eyes are opened wide and the edges of his lips are pulled downwards slightly in a frown. “He’s not a good person,” is all Yukhei says.

“Is this about the bet?”

“I already told you that I don’t care about the bet—”

“Then what is it about?!”

Yukhei drops the bag of gummy worms into an empty cup holder. He sighs loudly as he runs a hand through his hair, clearly trying to string together a proper sentence in his head before he speaks.

Mark waits.

“I—” Yukhei’s explanation is interrupted by a radio from Taeil, stating that there’s a speedboat up ahead.

The two of them turn to look.

True enough, there’s a small boat approaching the pier. Mark checks the time—it’s 3.26AM. There aren’t supposed to be any boats coming in for the night according to the list they were given. Mark frantically conveys his panic with his eyes.

“All teams on standby within approachable distance,” Yukhei says calmly into the receiver, his gaze steely as he nods over at Mark. “We’ll go get a closer look. Everyone in their positions.”

It’s only when Yukhei reaches over to give Mark’s thigh a firm squeeze that Mark realises that this is happening. The intricate plan that they discussed over a meeting about their method of approach, their tactic when it comes to their attack… every little detail that they pondered over for the past week is finally becoming real.

Mark has never been particularly excited for something in this scale, but he feels his heartbeat quicken as he gives Yukhei a nod, and they both spring into action, their previous argument forgotten. For now.

 

All in all, Mark never expected to be put into this position. They were watching from a distance away before Mark saw it—it being a car approaching where the motorboat docked itself a few minutes ago. Two burly men in suits stepped out of the car, wearing sunglasses at this god forsaken hour in the night, and that’s when it _clicked_. Oh God, this is real.

Asian gangsters are truly such clichés.

Mark is decked out in full gear, his bulletproof vest threatening to squeeze the air out of his lungs as he holds his breath in anticipation from behind his hiding spot.

Yukhei is crowding into his space, looking around at the members of their tactical team as he makes gestures regarding their plan of attack. Mark is thankful that Yukhei is levelheaded enough to take charge of that task because he’s anything but calm right now.

Mark’s heart is threatening to leap out of his chest with every passing second. He can see the men holding guns as they approach the three people manning the speedboat, but the windows to the SUV are tinted so darkly that Mark can’t see what’s inside.

There’s another car parked not too far from the first one, but no one comes down from it. They’re probably there as backup.

Mark gulps.

The men are trapped in a heated discussion for the longest time as Mark feels beads of sweat form on his forehead beneath his protective helmet.

“How long has it been?” Mark asks Yukhei, keeping his voice low from where they’re crouched behind a large hedge.

“I don’t know… 10 minutes?”

Mark wonders why Yukhei’s nerves aren’t as jittery as his are when this is his first time handling such a huge operation too. Anything could go wrong any minute now and Mark wouldn’t even know because he’s inexperienced with heading an ambush. He wishes Yuta could be here to call the shots right now.

Yuta has an amazing track record with shootouts.

“Hey, I’m a pretty good marksman. Relax,” Yukhei says, as if he were reading Mark’s mind. He has his pistol held firmly in one hand. “I came out on top. Most points in my class. Stop worrying.”

Mark’s eyes are still trained on the criminals in front. He grunts as a reply, watching closely as one of the men finally breaks apart from the group to open the door to the car they arrived in earlier. He pulls a girl out by the hair of her ponytail, and Mark almost springs into action just at the sight.

Yukhei manages to hold him back by his vest. “Mark!” Yukhei hisses, his eyes narrowing under his helmet. “Wait. We can’t risk any hostages in the car.”

“We can’t just stay here. They’re hurting her!”

“I know,” Yukhei exasperatedly sighs, holding him by the shoulder. He excuses himself to give commands into the receiver of the radio on his chest that Mark doesn’t quite catch. “Just listen to me. I know you’re nervous. But we have to _wait_.”

Mark nods, trying to contain himself as he sees the man drag the girl towards where the boat is docked. Her lips are taped shut with grey industrial tape and her hands are tied behind her. She struggles—kicking her legs and wriggling her upper body as she’s forcefully shoved to the ground.

There’s a bit more talking before another girl is pulled out of the car, manhandled similarly to the previous one.

“There don’t seem to be anymore people in the car,” Mark quickly says to Yukhei. “There’s a driver, but no more passengers.”

Yukhei nods, telling the teams to ready themselves for attack.

“The other car might be a getaway car.”

“The 116 are on the case. They’ll handle the car chase.”

Mark nods, quickly realising that they’re going to have to make a move soon.

The girls are dragged back upwards and Yukhei calls for their attack as the men are pulling the girls onto the boat.

Mark sprints out of his spot immediately, his cocked gun held tightly between his fingers are he nears the scene. The men are armed, too, and they swiftly pull out their own pistols, pointing them at the officers they see in the field of fire. “Let them go!” Mark shouts, his gun aimed at a man holding a girl by her hair.

He has his gun pointed at Mark, too. “Don’t move or we’ll hurt them!” he warns, keeping his eyes trained on Mark as he angles the gun towards her.

They’re 15 feet apart at most, and Mark surveys the area to see if there’s a clear opening for him to swoop in and grab one of the girls.

“There’s nowhere for you to go!” Doyoung shouts, and Mark can see how his finger tightens against the trigger as he grits the words out from between his teeth. “Release the girls. You’re surrounded.”

Mark notes that there’s only one man who will be prepared to fire in his direction as the others have their guns aimed at the other detectives in their team. There really isn’t a manual on how to approach criminals. Mark doesn’t know if he should make a rash decision.

The only way these men will escape is by the speedboat and they can’t afford to let them get away now.

Not when they’re so close.

Mark takes a deep breath, and when he sees his chance, he leaps. He jumps forward, gun in hand, as he readies himself to shove at the man holding one of the girls to knock him and his gun over and hopefully push her behind him where one of the other detectives will handle it. He hears someone gasp behind him before everything happens at once.

His colleagues spring into action in a heartbeat and there’s a whole struggle as they attempt to wrangle the guns out of the criminals’ hands.

Mark is successful at first. He manages to knock the man down and his gun clatters from his hand, falling to the ground as the man falls sideways. Mark pushes the girl out of the range of fire and he sees her struggle get behind the car. He makes the mistake of watching her for a second too long because when he turns back to look, the man already picked up his gun again and the barrel of the gun is pointed right at him.

Oh my God.

Mark has been in shootouts before. He’s had a gun pointed at him before. But never has a gun been so accurately aimed at him where he knows that it’s going to cause major damage if it’s fired.

The man’s eight feet away and Mark doesn’t know if he’ll get away quickly enough if he fires the gun.

Mark says his last prayer.

“Mark!” He hears Yukhei shout just as he sees the man pull the trigger.

Mark is about to roll out of the way when he feels a violent shove against his side, and it all happens in a blink of an eye. Mark’s body collides against a small pillar and his head bangs against the concrete of the ground. However, he doesn’t feel a sting in any part of his body. He gets up, frantically twisting his body to look back in the direction he was pushed from.

The criminal is held down by one of his colleagues—seemingly Taeil—with his gun out of sight, and the other men seem to have been taken down as well.

Mark’s eyes flit towards a figure sitting on the ground. The figure struggles with pulling off his helmet with one large hand. _Yukhei_. Mark practically teleports to his side and he notes the red staining over the lateral portion of the fabric on Yukhei’s left thigh. Mark holds in a scream.

Blood really isn’t his favourite sight.

“Oh my _fucking_ God,” Mark exclaims, the fact that he might have a slight concussion from hitting his head on the ground completely forgotten. “Oh my fucking God, Yukhei, what the fucking hell.”

Yukhei finally manages to take his helmet off with his free hand, his other hand uselessly held against the wound on his thigh to apply pressure.

Mark quickly replaces Yukhei’s hand with both of his own, pressing down harder to prevent more blood from escaping. He doesn’t want Yukhei to bleed out and die here in the pier. “Oh my God, this is the worst day of my life. I can’t fucking—”

“Whoa, Mark, chill out,” Yukhei soothes, placing a bloodied palm onto Mark’s trembling hands. Mark expects Yukhei to be frowning or to be cringing in pain, but when Mark looks up at him, Yukhei is _smiling_.

Mark doesn’t know if it’s infuriating that Yukhei can smile after taking a bullet or if it’s a relief that Yukhei’s still as much of a menace even with a foreign body embedded in his flesh. “Why’d you do that… I… You took a fucking _bullet_ for me…” Mark is aware that he’s talking gibberish now, all his words are melding into one in his head. “I can’t believe you… Why did you… Why?”

Yukhei only strokes his hands with his bloodied fingers, all the while still smirking slightly although his lips look paler than usual. “You always talked shit about people seeing me as a god… maybe now you’ll see me as a god too,” he says, chuckling lowly. “I am your lord and saviour after all.”

Mark doesn’t know if he wants to wring his neck or kiss him right now. Wait, _kiss_ him? Kiss Yukhei? All the adrenaline must’ve been pumped to his head if he’s thinking of kissing Yukhei. But oh my God, would he.

He really wants to kiss Yukhei right now. Pale lips and all.

Yukhei just took a fucking bullet for him.

“Stop making a big deal out of it in your head,” Yukhei interrupts Mark’s inner turmoil to say, seeming carefree about the large amount of blood he’s losing through his wound. “I’m not going to die. It’s going to be okay.”

“I… I could kiss you right now,” Mark whispers, more to himself than to Yukhei, honestly.

Yukhei only beams back at him. “Maybe later. My lips are kind of chapped right now… must be all the blood I’m losing.”

Mark makes a strangled noise when he realises just how much blood is pooling around Yukhei’s thigh. “Guys!” he cries, looking around to see his colleagues bustling about as they detain the criminals.

Only Jaehyun stops to respond to Mark’s shriek, whistling when he sees the wound on Yukhei’s leg. “The ambulance is coming,” he says, squatting down to punch Yukhei lightly in the shoulder. “Some kind of hero you were out there. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’ve got a hole the size of a golfball in my thigh and I think I’ve lost a pint of blood so far, so… I’m just peachy,” Yukhei responds, his tone only slightly sarcastic.

If Jaehyun isn’t going to smack Yukhei over the head, Mark will do it. But Yukhei sacrificed himself for him, so maybe not.

The ambulance finally arrives after a few more agonising minutes of waiting and Yukhei is hoisted onto a stretcher and wheeled towards the vehicle by the paramedics. Yukhei is conscious enough for the paramedics to get enough information out of him, so they don’t ask for a companion to ride with him.

Mark’s hands suddenly feel very empty without having to cover Yukhei’s wound. His fingers are coated with dried spots of blood that have turned a faint shade of reddish brown from oxidation, and he doesn’t know what to do with them right now.

Jaehyun claps him on the back, shoving him in the direction of the ambulance. “Go,” he says simply. “I’ll take care of this.”

A paramedic turns to Mark before he’s about to close the doors to the back of the ambulance. “You’re looking a bit lost there. Do you want to come along?” he asks, and that’s all the invitation Mark needs before he’s nodding fiercely, hopping into the back of the ambulance without a second thought.

Yukhei is surprised to see Mark crawling into the space next to him, but his expression slowly softens when Mark reaches over to sandwich one of his hands between Mark’s dirty ones.

“You’re so fucking stupid,” Mark mutters, squeezing Yukhei’s hand. “You’re a dumbass with a messiah complex.”

Yukhei’s grin widens slightly as he looks up at Mark. “I have no idea what that means, but thanks.”

Mark sighs, clasping tightly onto Yukhei’s hand as the paramedics fuss over him. Yukhei shouldn’t have taken that bullet for him but he did. Now Mark’s just hoping that he’ll be okay. He sees Yukhei’s eyes flutter closed as exhaustion overtakes him, and Mark holds back a dramatic screech for Yukhei to stay awake and to not give up.

Yukhei’s heart monitor seems to be stable, so Mark’s anxious look directed towards the paramedic’s way is responded to with light laughter. “He’ll be okay,” one of the paramedics says, nodding reassuringly in Mark’s direction. “He lost quite a bit of blood, but he’ll be okay.”

Mark nods back, swallowing a lump caught in his throat. He spares Yukhei’s wound one last look before he directs his line of sight to Yukhei’s face—eyes closed with his long eyelashes almost touching the top of his cheeks.

Yukhei’s going to be okay.

 

* * *

 

Yukhei’s recovery period is brief. He spends a little more than a week in the hospital, mostly because the doctors don’t want Yukhei to go back to work so soon rather than because his condition is bad. Mark visits him every day, making sure to bring whatever Yukhei asks of him because for one, he feels responsible for why Yukhei is hospitalised in the first place, and two, he _kind of_ really wants to see Yukhei’s recovery in person.

He doesn’t want to hear news from someone else. He wants to see Yukhei’s progress with his two eyes and to hear Yukhei’s stupid loud laugh with his own ears.

Mark even tries his hand at making rice congee once because Yukhei’s mother is in Hong Kong and she was screaming over a FaceTime call about flying over to make him food. Mark tries his hand at making Mrs. Wong’s recipe for rice porridge but it’s a lot grainer than he expects it to be.

Yukhei doesn’t seem to mind, though.

Chenle shows up on one of Mark’s visits by coincidence. He’s still dressed in his uniform, having dropped by after concluding classes at the police academy. He’s slightly tanner now as compared to the pictures Mark saw on Yukhei’s phone the other day.

Yukhei pulls the gun holster out from his bedside drawer and hands it to Mark to give to Chenle.

Chenle is ecstatic when he receives the small gift, touched by the kindness shown to him by a stranger. He tells Mark that he can’t wait to show a certain Park Jisung. Yukhei gives Chenle a high-five for managing to make a close friend at the academy so quickly, and Mark understands what he means wholeheartedly.

Mark’s days at the police academy were made a hundred times easier after he met Jeno and Jaemin in his second week, then Renjun and Donghyuck in the following week. The five of them made a small team of misfits and somehow Mark ended up being the only one working in Precinct 127 whereas the other four are based in Precinct 116.

Watching the way Yukhei and Chenle interact makes Mark miss his own brother.

Yukhei is looking at Chenle with a bright smile on his face that conveys just how proud he is of the younger boy, and when Yukhei notices Mark staring at him, he gives Mark a grin that’s equally as dazzling.

The week passes by quickly and soon Yukhei is discharged. He still has to dress the wound on his thigh, but thankfully the bullet didn’t go too deep and only tore some of the muscles. Yukhei has to walk with crutches and attend physical therapy to aid with his recovery, but he’s definitely going to be able to walk properly again.

He’s not supposed to go back to work for another week, but he shows up the day after his hospital discharge anyway.

“Hello everyone!” Yukhei greets the whole precinct loudly as he pushes past the double doors, crutches in hand. “Did everybody miss me?”

Mark quickly looks up at the sound of the booming voice he’s become all too familiar with. His eyebrows crease together in puzzlement when he sees Yukhei hobble towards their desks, a huge smile plastered on his face. “Yukhei—” he calls, but his words are drowned out by the choruses of “Yukhei!” coming from his colleagues.

A horde of them flock over towards Yukhei, and Taeyong quickly holds onto one of Yukhei’s arms to steady him as he continues walking towards them.

“Oh my God, the god is back,” Yuta cheers, pushing past Taeil who plants a sloppy kiss onto Yukhei’s cheek to give Yukhei a hug of his own.

“We’re so happy you’re back,” Ten exclaims as he brings the largest swivel chair in the station (which happens to be his own chair, go figure) for Yukhei to sit on. “Xuxi, you’re looking good.”

Jaehyun throws an arm over Mark’s shoulders when Mark approaches the group of people who have come to circle around Yukhei. “I was certain that you’d be out for another week,” Jaehyun supplies, sighing. “I really shouldn’t have made that bet.”

There’s something dangerous that glints in Yukhei’s eyes when his gaze meets Mark. “Say, about bets…” he trails off as everyone quiets down to listen to him speak. “I think I won the one against Markie Mark. The arrest count.”

Mark’s jaw immediately falls open. Really? Yukhei’s going to talk about that now? When he has a bandaged leg and crutches in his hands? He’s going to be petty at this time of the day?

Mark visited him plenty of times over the past week but never did they discuss the stupid bet that technically originated all of this trouble. Mark assumed that the bet was done and dusted without anyone coming up on top. He hasn’t even thought about it ever since Yukhei got shot.

And here Yukhei is bringing it up for no good reason.

“You were tied the last time I counted,” Ten points out, looking at the unofficial scoreboard in the centre of the station. “And I kept count even after Johnny shut it down, so I’m pretty up-to-date. 76-76.”

“But Xuxi took a bullet for Mark! That must count for something,” Doyoung adds, awfully helpful for someone who usually aims to get everyone else in as much trouble as he can for shits and giggles. (Mark has caught Doyoung snickering to himself after reporting Jaehyun to HQ once for some petty violation. He vowed to never cross Doyoung ever since.)

Oh, but Doyoung _is_ shit-stirring right now.

Mark gulps loudly as all the men in the room turn to look at him. They’re studying his face and waiting for his response, he can tell. He blinks quietly, weighing the options in his head. Well, he doesn’t really need Yukhei’s car. And going on a date with Yukhei while he’s on crutches isn’t going to be too troublesome either, because the crutches will help keep him contained.

He’s been in Yukhei’s car more times than he can count by now, and he’s used to tolerating Yukhei’s company more often than not… and Yukhei did take a bullet for him.

Mark supposes that Yukhei can have this win. But only because this is one of Mark’s ways of showing his gratitude.

“I think I should win by default for being a hero,” Yukhei pipes up, earning him a fist bump from Taeil.

That statement makes something crawl under Mark’s skin, but Mark promptly ignores the feeling in favour of being civil. He has to be civil. His ego is going to be bruised greatly by this, but he has to do it. “Okay,” Mark grits out from between his teeth before it’s too late and the words get stuck in his throat.

There’s a collective gasp that sounds in the common area.

“What? I said okay.”

“And that’s exactly what’s scary about this,” Taeyong says, his eyes opened wide as he stares at Mark. “Are you admitting defeat?”

Mark sighs, not liking the choice of words Taeyong is using at all. It’s tackling too close to one of Mark’s top three fears. Mark pushes the thought to the back of his mind, choosing instead to nod robotically. He thinks his neck might snap in half.

He kind of hopes it will, actually.

“What’s happening, everyone?” Johnny’s voice booms from the entrance to the station. He’s in full uniform when they all turn to look at him. He probably just came from an official meeting with the higher-ups, and he looks like he’s in a good mood. “Xuxi! You’re back!” Johnny practically runs over to gather Yukhei into his arms, crutches and all.

“Whoa, John!” Yukhei laughs, nudging him aside. “I missed you too, I guess.”

Johnny is smiling when he lets Yukhei go. “What’s with all the ruckus? I doubt it’s because our shining star is back.”

“Mark just admitted that Xuxi is the better detective,” Jaehyun says from beside Mark. The traitor.

“I did not,” Mark huffs out.

“Well, you kind of did. You admitted that Xuxi won the bet.”

Johnny looks surprised to hear this, and Mark realises suddenly that it’s not because Johnny expected Mark to win but because the bet was supposed to have ended months ago when Johnny himself called it off. Mark wasn’t going to defy Johnny’s orders and continue it, of course, but Yukhei pushed his buttons one too many times (truthfully, it was just the one time) so it was back on.

Mark was in it to win it, too, but one thing led to another and they’re all gathered here now.

And Mark’s being the bigger person by giving the win to Yukhei.

“Wait, the bet was still…” Johnny drawls, vaguely rotating his wrist joint in the air as a gesture as he narrows his eyes at Mark. Mark gulps. “You lost?”

Mark takes a deep breath. “Not exactly.”

“But Yukhei won. That means you lost.”

“You don’t have to say it that way,” Yuta interjects with a paper bag of microwavable popcorn in his hands. When did he even get that? And why is he eating it in the middle of a “shame Mark” session? “This is starting to become very sad.”

Ten rolls his eyes and pushes past everyone to step into the middle of the circle. He sets a hand on Yukhei’s shoulders as he looks Johnny in the eye. “Because Yukhei won the bet, his Audi is safe,” Ten says, and Yuta audibly sighs in relief. “However, Mark has to hold up his end of the wager…”

Jaehyun promptly bursts out in laughter. “You have to go on a date with Xuxi,” he unhelpfully rubs salt into Mark’s wound, and Mark elbows him in the gut strongly. “Ouch! What the hell.”

Johnny looks pensive about this new addition to the bet, probably having forgotten about this little detail. “I don’t encourage romance between colleagues…” he states, sounding unsure about the whole matter. “And neither do I condone going against your superior after he _explicitly_ made orders for a certain bet to be cancelled…”

Yukhei clears his throat loudly, making Mark turn to look at him for the first time in awhile. He shoots Mark a lopsided grin.

It’d be cute if he didn’t look so smug about everything.

“Oh, what the hell,” Johnny finally says, throwing both his hands in the air. “Who am I to tell you what to do anyway? Go get married in Vegas for all I care.”

Mark wants to point out that Johnny is in fact the captain of their precinct, which makes him the highest ranking detective in the vicinity as of now, which in turn means that Johnny _can_ technically give them orders. He can help put Mark out of his misery by shutting it all down right now.

It’s too late, however, because the whole room erupts in cheers at Johnny’s approval of the bet.

They’re just excited to see Mark suffer.

“I’ll make arrangements for the date immediately,” Ten announces enthusiastically, bouncing in place. “I have everything mapped out in my head already. Dinner, a movie… a very specific site where you can see the stars here in the city… I’ll send you the coordinates later.” Ten pats Yukhei on the shoulder encouragingly.

Johnny makes a snide remark about how Ten is probably going to put his actual work on the back burner in favour of planning this date, and Ten only snaps that he’s definitely right because he’s not going to do any official work until the date is foolproof.

“I’m going to miss so many meetings next week,” Johnny groans as he claps Mark on the back. “But have fun on your very scandalous date.”

“I’m setting the date for next weekend!” Ten has already sprinted halfway across the room to get on his computer, presumably to start making reservations for the night.

“Great! That’s when I’m planning to throw my crutches away,” Yukhei replies, holding the equipment up.

Doyoung snorts loudly in contempt.

Mark wants to open his mouth to chide Yukhei for being irresponsible like he always did back at the hospital, but the weight of Jaehyun’s arm still resting on his shoulders reminds him that he probably shouldn’t. They can’t find out that he visited Yukhei at the hospital every day for the past week and more. Mark only squints his eyes at Yukhei to convey his distaste.

Yukhei smirks back at him.

“Okay, let’s start being productive again,” Taeyong calls, shooing everyone away one by one. “Only one visitor for Wong Yukhei at a time. Why am I always the one breaking up the party?”

“Can I talk to Xuxi first?” Johnny pleads, and if Mark didn’t know any better he’d think that Taeyong was the captain and Johnny a junior detective. “Please!”

Taeyong sighs, nodding.

Mark turns to leave as Johnny does a cheer in place by pumping his fist into the air. He gives Yukhei one last eye-roll.

Yukhei winks at him.

Mark bites back the smile that’s threatening to show on his face, walking away towards his own desk as he chews down on his bottom lip. Will Yukhei really throw his crutches away on the day of their date? He doesn’t seem to be walking very stably yet, but the crutches do get in the way of any and all activities… why is Mark even thinking about the date, anyway?

He’s not supposed to be looking forward to it.

Mark looks at the calendar sitting on his desk, staring specifically at the square of the day of their date. He sighs, uncapping a red Sharpie as he reaches over to take the calendar in his hands. He circles the day in red ink before putting the calendar back where he found it.

He’s not excited about it.

He’s just worried that he’ll forget.

 

* * *

 

Yukhei, unsurprisingly, is crutches-free when he picks Mark up from his place. This particular Saturday happens to be their day off, so Mark didn’t see Yukhei at the station in the morning and only learnt about the absence of the crutches when he doesn’t see them in the backseat of Yukhei’s car.

Mark sighs, climbing into the passenger seat as he shakes his head.

“What?” Yukhei asks as a form of greeting, a wide grin etched onto his features.

“You really threw your crutches away, didn’t you?”

“It didn’t go with my outfit.” Yukhei gestures to his clothes. He’s dressed in a white shirt with a navy blazer over it and a pair of tight black pants. “I was going to forgo the bandages if they didn’t fit into my jeans, but thankfully they do, so the wound wins today.”

Mark gapes at him, disgusted. “You have to dress the wound, Yukhei. Don’t you want to recover?”

Yukhei considers this for a long while, tapping a finger against his chin in contemplation. “Not really,” he says, but he holds up a hand when Mark’s mouth falls open to scold him again. “Because you won’t fuss over me as much if I’m all better. It’s more fun to watch you fret over me.”

Mark clicks his tongue in his mouth, annoyed. “Just drive.”

Yukhei is unbelievable. This makes Mark think back to two days ago when Yukhei called him claiming that he dropped a bottle of pain medication and that it rolled underneath a cabinet so he couldn’t reach it. Mark took pity on his helpless ass and immediately rushed over, only to realise that Yukhei hurt his _thigh_ , not his _knee_. He’s fully capable of squatting down to reach not even two inches under a cabinet set on a carpeted floor.

Mark also realised just how spoilt Yukhei is when Yukhei asked for simple favours because Mark was “conveniently there” in his house. He wanted a bottle of water to chase the painkillers down with and he wanted his pillows fluffed up behind his head. He even asked for a kiss on the forehead before taking his nap, but Mark pointedly flicked him behind the ear instead for being ridiculous.

Yukhei did look kind of cute huddled underneath his mountain of blankets, but Mark’s never going to tell him that.

“This car could’ve been mine,” Mark points out as the Audi cruises down the empty street. It’s a quiet evening even though it’s the time of the day when everyone’s usually out and about on the search for dinner. “But I let you win because I felt bad for you.”

“As if you let me win,” Yukhei tuts, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. “I won fair and square.”

“I could’ve disputed the results but I didn’t, so I let you win.”

Yukhei doesn’t continue arguing, instead reaching over to turn on the radio. A nineties love song plays through the speakers of the car, and suddenly the atmosphere is a lot calmer and less playful.

Mark tries not to pay the music too much mind.

They drive to an Italian restaurant, following Ten’s itinerary religiously. It’s not going to do them any good to defy Ten’s orders, especially not when Ten literally has each time slot on the timetable listed to the last minute.

Ten is very detailed, even going as far as to type out a whole list of possible conversation starters and topics. There’s “worst date you’ve ever been on”, “favourite book (although I know you both can’t read)”, and even “wildest place you’ve ever had sex” printed in size 12 Times New Roman font. The whole itinerary is five pages thick and it looks very professional.

It could pass for an official document if only Ten didn’t print out a badly photoshopped picture of Yukhei and Mark’s heads onto a wedding cake on the front page.

Mark wonders why the rest of their colleagues are so excited for this date when they don’t even gain anything from it other than the knowledge that they just made Mark’s life all the more worse.

Yukhei is walking with a slight limp when they get to the restaurant. It’s nothing too obvious because he’s almost fully healed by now, probably because he has some sort of supernatural healing power. His physiotherapist was surprised to see his rapid improvement in ambulation a few days ago and she could only stare in awe when Yukhei insisted on walking without his crutches.

Mark didn’t mean to accompany Yukhei to that appointment but he so happened to have called on the day when Yukhei took a leave of absence for medical reasons.

It was all a coincidence.

Anyway, Yukhei’s leg is recovering quicker than anyone expects it to.

They find their table reserved under Wong-Lee (it takes multiple attempts of both their last names _and_ Ten’s ridiculously complicated one before they find the reservation) and they’re led to a cosy corner of the bustling restaurant. The entire place is dimly lit and there’s a candle and a rose set in the middle of their dining table.

So it’s one of _those_ places.

Mark gulps.

It takes them awhile to order because everything on the menu is written in Italian, so Mark lazily opts for a plate of _tagliatelle al ragù_ because it’s the only dish that he’s familiar with. He leaves the rest to Yukhei, who randomly lists off a few items on the menu when the waiter comes to take their orders.

It feels funny going on a fancy date with Yukhei, especially when he takes into account the reason why they’re sitting here in the first place. How ironic is it that Mark is forced to spend a supposedly nice night with the person who used to be the bane of his existence?

Yukhei’s managed to crawl out of the category of “spiteful people” in Mark’s book that happened to only have one member in all of its history. Now, Yukhei is somewhat tolerable. Sometimes adorable, but other times sitting on the borderline of being insufferable.

They make small talk to ease the awkwardness of having a candlelit dinner together, and Mark finds that Yukhei is a lot funnier than he expected. Somehow, in the confines of their own little bubble, Yukhei’s odd way of making suggestive jokes to cut through the tension is a lot more acceptable. It’s entertaining, even, when Yukhei wiggles his eyebrows after saying something risqué.

Mark laughs a little louder than he expects to and it disrupts the romantic date in the table next to theirs, so he has to compose himself by taking sips from his glass of red wine.

He’s definitely going to have to pace himself with the alcohol today.

Sometime after their main course is served, Yukhei starts speaking about his ambitions, but he does it in a particularly weird accent. He puts emphasis on his vowels and less on the ending tones of his sentences, and he laughs at himself quietly when he finishes talking.

“What the hell was that,” Mark deadpans, eyeing Yukhei suspiciously from across the table. “What were you even saying?”

Yukhei giggles. “That was my accent when I first came to Korea,” he admits bashfully, covering his smile with his hand. “ _I spoke like this for the longest time._ ”

The peculiarity of the accent eventually gets to Mark and he starts chuckling, too. “Oh my God, say something else.”

Yukhei proceeds to talk about everything and nothing at the same time, sometimes throwing in random English terms. “ _I used to only know a bit of Korean, so I’d mix random English words in and my peers would be like, ‘What the fuck is wrong with this kid?’_ But I learnt Seoul dialect in the next couple of years and shed the accent.”

“The accent’s funny,” Mark says, still laughing a bit. He smiles as he takes another sip of wine. “It’s cute.”

Yukhei mirrors his grin. “Everything I do is cute.”

“ _And_ … you just killed the vibe.”

Yukhei proves to be very suave, however, because he manages to salvage the pleasant atmosphere that they’ve found themselves settled into after they got past their initial bump of awkwardness. Yukhei reaches over with a napkin to dab at the edge of Mark’s lips, shaking his head in mock distaste.

“What?” Mark asks, looking down at his plate of pasta then back up at Yukhei. He self-consciously licks over his lips.

“You’re a messy eater,” Yukhei points out. “You eat like a child.”

Mark doesn’t know if he’s pouting, but he doesn’t care to check. “I do not,” he says, crossing his arms defensively.

“You have tomato sauce all over your face.”

“Really?”

Yukhei nods.

Mark is about to excuse himself to the washroom to take a look at the damage he’s done to his own face when Yukhei stops him, reaching over with the napkin again to dab around his lips. Mark wants to eye the cloth but it tires his eyes out so the only comfortable position he finds himself gazing in is directly at Yukhei.

Yukhei has his eyebrows knit together in concentration as he wipes the sauce from Mark’s lips. His movements are gentle and precise, barely there. He only relaxes his facial expression when he gets the stain off. “There.”

Mark swallows the saliva that’s pooled in his mouth when Yukhei settles back into his seat. “What was that for?” Mark mutters, not really expecting Yukhei to say anything in return. “I could’ve wiped my own mouth.”

“Yeah, but I wanted to do it for you.”

Mark pushes down the bile that rushes up to his throat out of nervousness. Curse Yukhei and his effortless responses. He always seems to catch Mark by surprise with statements like that. “Oh,” Mark mumbles, adjusting the napkin in his lap. “I’m going to need more wine before I can find something to say to that.”

Yukhei chuckles, visibly pleased.

 

Mark doesn’t want to get ahead of himself when he says this, but dinner is pleasant. Yukhei doesn’t come off as the annoying coworker anymore. He actually happens to be a lot more mature than Mark previously gave him credit for.

Yukhei has the perfect responses to just about anything Mark says, Yukhei has impeccable table manners, and Yukhei doesn’t need to steal glances at the handbook Ten typed up for him because he’s actually a pretty decent date. Mark now knows why Yukhei didn’t seem nervous about having to take him out to dinner, Yukhei is an effortless conversationalist.

Mark’s first impression of Yukhei was, to be frank, wrong.

The night is young, however, so Mark keeps his comments to himself. There’s ample time for _something_ to go wrong on their date and he’s keeping his instincts sharpened in the case of such a thing happening. Sure, Yukhei has been doing everything right so far, but there’s still that small, minuscule possibility that he’s going to say or do something that’s less than desirable.

Or, God forbid, _Mark_ be the one who plays his cards wrongly.

He’d never live this down. Ten will make sure of it.

They get back into Yukhei’s car for the second activity on the itinerary. It’s a movie—a sappy love story that’s been sweeping the box office since its premiere last week. Mark can’t quite remember the name of it, but he’s heard that it’s a stupid tearjerker reminiscent of a Nicholas Sparks movie. It’s definitely not something that he’d be interested in watching if not for this whole arrangement.

Ten would have his head if he skipped it, though.

Mark groans when he plops himself into the passenger seat, already awaiting his imminent death in the form of a cheesy love story.

“What?” Yukhei asks as he slides into the driver’s seat, starting the ignition to his car. The car revs to life as he shuts the door. “You’re looking awfully glum. Was I that bad of a date?”

Mark turns to glare at him wordlessly.

“What?”

“No, you were fine,” Mark admits, ignoring the small holler Yukhei makes in celebration. “I just… really hate Nicholas Sparks.”

Yukhei raises an eyebrow at him, puzzled. “Did you date him in high school or something? What did he ever do to you?”

“His stories are so… _cliché_.”

Yukhei laughs. “I’m not even going to pretend that I know who that is.”

“I’m talking about the movie! I hate movies like that.” Mark crosses his arms in front of his chest, sulking a bit against his own will.

It’s not that he wants the night to end per se, but he’d really rather that they watch anything _but_ the movie Ten set them up for. There’s a new action movie that Mark’s been dying to watch, and even another instalment to this kid’s movie about aliens that he wouldn’t mind seeing. Really, just anything but a pointless romantic drama centred around star-crossed lovers.

After Mark’s internal tantrum, he looks up to see Yukhei smiling at him with only a slight tilt at the end of his lips. He quickly looks away to hide the burning sensation that’s creeping up to his cheeks upon registering the look on Yukhei’s face.

Yukhei chuckles to himself, obviously sharper than he lets on. “Come on,” he urges softly, leaning towards Mark’s seat to grab the end of the seatbelt for him.

Momentarily, just _momentarily_ , their fingers brush as Mark grabs the seatbelt at the same time. Mark is caught by surprise and he twists his neck to look in Yukhei’s direction only—

Wow, has Yukhei always been this handsome?

Yes, of course he has.

Mark finds his face only inches apart from Yukhei’s, and Yukhei has stopped all movement by now so they’re just staring at each other with a small amount of distance between them. Mark can see every eyelash lining Yukhei’s brown eyes, he can probably even attempt to calculate the angle of the slope to Yukhei’s sharp nose, and he can really admire how plush Yukhei’s lips look up close.

Mark’s mind has already abandoned all question over _why_ Yukhei wanted to help him with his seatbelt in favour of asking _what_ Mark should do to alleviate the tension in the air.

There’s a certain sense of _thickness_ lingering in the atmosphere as they continue staring at each other.

Mark goes through the motions again, looking from Yukhei’s eyes to his nose and finally his lips. It doesn’t help that Yukhei’s lips part as his tongue pokes out to wet them right when Mark’s eyes are looking there.

Mark takes an audible gulp, hearing the sirens in his head go off and increasing in volume.

Fuck it.

Mark closes the distance between them, wrapping his fingers at the back of Yukhei’s neck as he pulls the latter towards him, their lips colliding harshly against each other. It’s satisfying, in a way, because this was the moment Mark was waiting for the whole night without really knowing that he was. Something in his mind just _clicks_ and the date suddenly feels complete.

It feels as if time could stop right here and now and it wouldn’t even make a difference because this is _it_.

Yukhei’s lips are as soft as Mark remembers. He’s always wondered what use Yukhei has for such pouty lips and this is probably it. Yukhei’s lips were made for kissing.

It feels unreal when Yukhei’s fingers come up to cup around Mark’s face, pulling him in even closer if they weren’t already close enough. Mark can feel the same annoying gear stick poking at his leg as he presses his upper body closer to Yukhei’s, letting himself get lost in the feeling of Yukhei hands on his skin and the pleasant warmth that Yukhei’s lips provide.

Mark gasps into the kiss when Yukhei swipes his tongue across his lips. His lips part immediately as if this kiss is clockwork with everything slowly falling into place bit by bit. It feels a bit sloppy and messy, but how can Mark even begin to complain when Yukhei makes noises like _that_ when Mark pulls on his hair?

Mark swallows the low moan Yukhei emits when he tugs lightly at the hair lining the back of Yukhei’s head, smiling to himself in appreciation of the noise.

If he had known that Yukhei was capable of something like this, he probably would’ve kissed him sooner.

Mark then gets the stupid itch to say something he knows he’ll regret tomorrow morning. He pulls back, disconnecting their lips as he breathes heavily, looking into Yukhei’s wide pupils as their breaths sync in rhythm.

There’s something incredibly exciting about seeing Yukhei’s lips red and swollen just from the sheer pressure of their kiss. Mark really wants to kiss him again.

“We should skip the movie,” Mark states, his chest still rising and falling harshly as his hands come to trail down to Yukhei’s biceps. That’s where he lets his fingers squeeze. “Any dumb DVD I have sitting in my drawers will be better than Nicholas Sparks.”

Yukhei’s large eyes widen comically as he wets his lips with his tongue once more, probably out of habit. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” he croaks out, and Mark’s suddenly hyperaware of just how closely they’re pressed up against one another still.

“Um, yeah? Let’s go to my place, I’ve got the whole Avengers box set,” Mark responds, feeling Yukhei’s thumb trace along the angle of his jaw in circles. “And cheap wine.”

Yukhei laughs at that, his fingers moving quickly to pull Mark back in by the collar.

The kiss they share this time is soft and sweet, but electric nonetheless. Somehow it feels like they’ve been doing this all their lives. There’s no uncomfortable nose bumping or a feeling of incompatibility. Their lips just fit like two neighbouring pieces of a puzzle when they slot them together.

When they part for air, Mark promptly takes Ten’s handbook from Yukhei’s lap to throw it into the backseat, hoping that he’ll never have to see it again.

Ten’s going to be furious that they decided to ditch his plan and make their own, but Johnny will protect them from his wrath.

“You’re actually very forward,” Yukhei comments as he pulls out of their parking spot, his eyes twinkling with mischief as he glances at Mark through his peripheral vision. “But I hope you know that I meant it when I said I don’t put out on the first date.”

“Hmmph,” Mark scoffs, slapping Yukhei across the arm before buckling himself into his seat. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

Yukhei laughs, and Mark wonders briefly if it’ll be dangerous to shut him up with a kiss while he’s driving.

Probably.

“You’ll get what’s coming for you one day,” Mark mutters to himself, shooting Yukhei a pointed look.

“Well, whatever it is can’t be _that_ bad as long as you’re the one delivering it, right?”

Ugh, Mark really wants to shut Yukhei up with his lips right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we’re finally here… there’s one last chapter to go… i’m suddenly emotional  
> this really has been my baby for so long i can’t believe it’s almost over
> 
> twt: [@lucashaeyadwae](http://twitter.com/lucashaeyadwae)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy 20th birthday, wong yukhei! i’m posting this two days earlier in your honour.

They don’t define their relationship explicitly although they do date exclusively.

Yukhei gets Mark a small gift on the one-month mark of their first date (courtesy of their stupid bet) and Mark returns the favour on the second month. They don’t really state what they are outright until the sixth month, when Yukhei lets it slip that they’re “dating” as he’s talking to Taeyong in the pantry.

Mark happens to be walking by at the same exact moment when he hears it, and he swears that his eyes threaten to bulge out of their sockets when Taeyong whips his head over sharply to look at him. “What?” Mark mutters, unwrapping the _hot bar_ that he just took out of the microwave five seconds ago.

“Wait, you’re… _dating_?”

Mark shrugs, taking a bite out of the skewered sausage as he meets eyes with Yukhei. “What the hell did you say to him?” he asks.

“He asked if he could set me up on a blind date with his friend and I said, ‘Sorry, Mark and I are dating.’” Yukhei scratches at the back of his head in confusion. “Did I say something wrong?”

Taeyong opens and closes his mouth like a fish, visibly perplexed as he tries to wrap his head around the idea of Yukhei and Mark being _together_.

Well, Mark always thought that they made it very obvious that they’re in a relationship. Yukhei takes him to work more often than not now, and they still make stupid bets over work except whatever they put at stake in the recent wagers aren’t suitable for children’s ears.

They don’t bother talking about it with anyone in the precinct because it feels weird to interrupt work for this sort of announcement, and since they’re all detectives, secrets aren’t kept for long anyway. Especially not when they’re not even _trying_ to keep anything under wraps. Maybe they’re not the most romantic of couples because they don’t give each other sickening nicknames (Yukhei does. He calls Mark a variation of “baby cakes” every chance he gets) or touch each other unnecessarily (They do. Mark especially loves touching one of Yukhei’s biceps whenever they’re talking face to face), but they’re not sneaking around or anything.

Everything has been out in the open from day one, ever since they returned from that failure of a planned date that they made their own. Ten wasn’t very happy about the change in plans, true to Mark’s prediction, but he didn’t react as explosively as Mark expected. He only asked for any pictures that they took that night, and Yukhei showed him photos of their dinner that he sneakily took when Mark wasn’t looking.

The days passed after just like that, but no one pointed out the growing _thing_ between Yukhei and Mark.

Mark supposed that it was because the whole _thing_ was too weird, so everyone just chose to ignore it.

It never passed his mind that they didn’t know.

“When?!” Taeyong yells, shoving the two of them aside as he skulks out into the office area where the rest of their colleagues only stare at him questioningly. “Does everyone know that Mark and Yukhei are a ‘thing’ now?”

Mark drags Yukhei by the pants pocket and they follow closely behind Taeyong. “Do you want some?” Mark offers his _hot bar_ Yukhei’s way, but the latter only shakes his head with a smile.

“What kind of thing?” Yuta asks, tapping into his phone quickly without looking up.

“Partners?” Jaehyun suggests, his eyes flitting from Mark and Yukhei to Taeyong. “They’ve been working together for like, I don’t know… close to a year? I thought we all knew that by now.”

Taeyong shakes his head vehemently. “No! They’re together _together_.”

Mark sighs when Yukhei leans over to take a bite from his snack although he explicitly said that he didn’t want some earlier. He glares at Yukhei when he sees how much he ate. “Disgusting,” he mutters, poking Yukhei with a finger. “Get your own sausage.”

“That sounds dirty,” Taeil chirps. “‘Get your own sausage’... title of your sex tape.”

“Taeil,” Taeyong calls, hair in his hands. “They’re together in a way where they _can_ record a sex tape together.”

“Wait, what? They are?”

“Yeah, they are.”

Mark realises belatedly that nobody in the station caught onto their relationship. Not one person. Are they all really detectives?

Everyone’s suddenly panicking right in front of them. Mark can hear Ten screaming shrilly as he runs into Johnny’s office, probably to tell Johnny the news. This isn’t anything _new_ , he’s been touching Yukhei intimately for months now.

Yukhei even has his fingers grabbing onto Mark’s ass right now from behind.

Mark glares at him and he stops.

“It was worth a shot,” Yukhei giggles, his arm coming to wrap around Mark’s waist instead as he rests his fingers against Mark’s hip bone.

“When the hell did this become a thing?” Doyoung exasperatedly questions from his desk, gesturing wildly with his hands. “I thought it was more of a friends with benefits kind of thing.”

“Wait, you knew they were getting it on with each other and you didn’t say anything?” Ten shouts from inside Johnny’s room just as Johnny makes a loud noise in surprise.

Yuta clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, waving his phone in the air as he smiles at Yukhei. “Xuxi! Sicheng asked if he can tell Kunhang, Dejun, and Yangyang,” he says.

“I think the entire team in 116 already knows, though?” Yukhei replies.

Taeyong is calmer when he rests a hand on Mark’s shoulder, patting it lightly. He takes a deep breath before he speaks. “Does this mean that every time you told Yukhei to suck your dick, you meant it literally?” he asks, more serious than Mark has ever seen him.

Mark doesn’t know what to say to that. Yukhei and him make a lot of bets involving sexual favours should one of them win against the other, but not all of the bets come to fruition. He wonders if it’ll be excessive to be honest right now.

“Sometimes,” Yukhei helpfully supplies on Mark’s behalf. “Other times he—”

“Yukhei,” Mark hisses, prompting his boyfriend to shut up. “See if I ever touch your dick again if you don’t shut your mouth right this instant.”

Jaehyun gags loudly from the corner of the room he’s in. “Gross!”

Taeyong sighs loudly, and he sounds like a disappointed parent. “They grow up so fast,” he says, only loud enough for Mark to hear. “I can’t believe my son is all grown up now.”

“We have your blessings though, right, dad?” Yukhei interrupts.

“Of course…”

“Mark! Yukhei!” Johnny’s voice bellows from inside his room. “Can I speak to the both of you for a minute?”

Yukhei shoves Mark towards Johnny’s office immediately and they bustle past the chatter that’s erupted in the station because their stale, six-month-old relationship just became the day’s hot topic. “What is it, Cap?” Yukhei asks when they stand before Johnny.

Johnny is smiling at them widely as he holds both his arms out, huddling them into a hug. “What the hell,” he mutters as he continues tightening the hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

Mark exchanges a look of confusion with Yukhei, who only mirrors his expression. They quickly neutralise their faces when Johnny lets them go. “Um, thanks, Johnny,” Mark replies awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

He didn’t expect his coworkers to be anything less than supportive, and he’s glad that this really is the case. Although he initially thought that they were already aware of his relationship with Yukhei.

“Yeah, thanks,” Yukhei echoes.

“Any time, my boys,” Johnny clasps his hands together happily. “Drinks on me tonight?”

Yukhei nods just as Mark shrugs.

“127!” Johnny shouts, and Ten repeats what he says when it doesn’t seem to catch everyone’s attention. “Drinks on me tonight to celebrate MarkHei!”

There are several whoops and cheers that sound across the room, indicating affirmatives.

Mark sees Yukhei pout in annoyance. “What?” he asks gently, noting that he has a last bite to his _hot bar_ before it’s gone forever. He selflessly holds it up for Yukhei, offering the last bit of sustenance he has in the whole of the station. “You want this?”

Yukhei shakes his head. “Why is it MarkHei and not YukMark?” he whines, looking less like a six feet tall man and more like an overgrown child. “Why does your name get to go first?”

“Because it sounds better.”

Yukhei is pouting when Mark finishes off his sausage and leaves the room. “Oh, come on, YukMark isn’t that bad,” he says, tailing after Mark.

“I don’t make the rules.”

“It’s definitely YukMark!” Yukhei stops to hold Jaehyun’s arm when he says that. “Right? Doesn’t it sound better?”

Mark pointedly ignores Yukhei as he heads into the pantry in search for his next snack.

 

* * *

 

Kim Youngmin, the head of The Double Dragons, is still on the loose six months after their last operation concerning the gang that ended up with Yukhei getting shot in the leg. It feels like a lifetime ago since Mark last heard the name, and maybe it’s for the better, because there hasn’t been any activity from the gang cropping up in the city for the longest time.

The last time they received an anonymous tip from someone regarding The Double Dragons, it was said that Kim fled to Southeast Asia and is very likely to be in Laos. That’s no longer Precinct 127’s jurisdiction, so the case was referred to the relevant parties until further notice.

It’s been six months since Yukhei and Mark received a “big” case from Johnny, but they’ve been working together on their usual cases and although Mark still regards his partner as his competitor, somewhat, they get the work done twice as fast. Except Yukhei still hasn’t let go of his old ways and consistently urges Mark to tackle problems his way.

His way, being the “let’s go undercover” way.

Which brings Mark to their current situation where he has a bandanna tied over his haphazardly tousled hair coupled with an oversized hoodie and a pair of low-hanging jeans. It’s the typical getup for a college kid, and Mark hasn’t dressed like this in a long time. It feels even weirder that he has a gun strapped to his waist.

Yukhei is radiating with excitement from beside him. He has a white t-shirt on with an obscure band’s logo in the middle paired with his leather jacket. It’s probably his way of hiding the imprint of his gun under his shirt. The only upside to Yukhei dressing like a typical fuckboy at university is probably the fact that his black jeans are _really_ tight.

Okay, maybe the whole outfit is _kind of_ nice, but Mark’s not going to let Yukhei know right before they’re scheduled to infiltrate a college party.

Trust Yukhei to make a whole drug dealing crackdown so complicated. They could probably just seek out the dealer the old fashioned way, but _no_ , Yukhei wants to relive his teen fantasy of crashing a frat party. He looks like he belongs in the frat anyway.

“The music is so loud,” Mark muses as they walk towards the house from which music is blaring deafeningly from large speakers. The song being played isn’t even a good one.

Yukhei isn’t bothered by the sheer volume of the music, however. He nudges Mark lightly with his elbow teasingly. “Is somebody getting old? Does partying just not do it for you anymore, old man?”

“I’m literally your age,” Mark sneers, narrowing his eyes at Yukhei. “I’m even _months_ younger.”

“How many months? Be exact.”

Mark opens and closes his mouth as he tries to recall Yukhei’s birthday. Oh my God, he’s the worst boyfriend ever. He knows Yukhei’s birthday is at the end of the January… January 25th? 26th? When’s his own birthday, anyway? He can’t really do math. “Um…”

“It’s 6 months, you idiot,” Yukhei chides, looking pleased with himself. “It’s as long as our relationship, actually. Huh.”

“It’s going to be as long as the time our relationship _lasts_ if you don’t stop talking.”

Yukhei gasps, offended. “I should be saying that to you. I didn’t miss the look on your face when you were trying to recall my birthday. Do you even know it?”

Mark coughs loudly as he trudges past Yukhei towards the house, hoping to avoid having to own up to his own mistake. It’s not his fault that he’s bad with dates. It took him a whole minute to recall his own birthday, but that might not be the best argument when he’s trying to save face.

Yukhei follows right behind him, his long legs carrying him further per step so he falls into pace with Mark within seconds. It still frightens Mark how he’ll never be able to run from Yukhei because he’s sure he’ll catch up to him in no time.

They get in by handing the cover charge to the bouncer at the door, and a little bit more, because their made-up names aren’t on the guest list. Tonight, Mark is Billy Moon (Taeil graciously offered up his Johnny-given English name to him for the night) while Yukhei never learns and is insisting to steal Jaehyun’s name, so he’s Jeffrey Jung, another Johnny-given English name.

Mark wonders if the bouncer let them in because he just couldn’t be bothered to deal with two older-looking frat boys with ridiculous English names looking far too eager to be let into the party.

“Who are we looking for?” Mark asks Yukhei when they’ve stepped into the house. He pushes past a girl with a plastic cup in her hands and she glares at him. “Sorry.”

People seem to make a path for Yukhei, though. Mark ignores the look on Yukhei’s face because he knows just what the latter is going to say. “What?” Yukhei questions, visibly confused. “I can’t hear you!”

Mark gives up for the time being, looking around to find the kitchen. He doubts they would’ve installed speakers in there, so it’ll probably be quieter. He spies the entrance to it in the corner of his eye and he immediately tugs Yukhei over with him, cutting his conversation with two college girls short.

“Hey! I was about to get info.”

Mark raises an eyebrow at him. “Oh, right, because those two girls didn’t start talking to you first,” he retorts, realising how petty he sounds about the whole thing. “I mean, obviously two sober-looking college girls will know where to get drugs.”

“Shhh!” Yukhei hisses, bundling Mark into his arms as he looks around the empty kitchen suspiciously. “People might hear you. You’re not usually this careless… Are you _that_ jealous that I’m popular at college parties?”

“I’m not jealous,” Mark snaps, wriggling out of Yukhei’s grasp.

“Then why drag me all the way in here when I’m trying to find someone who will sell me blow?”

Mark scrunches up his facial features into a look of distaste. “Do you have to word it like that? ‘Blow’? Why can’t you just say ‘cocaine’ like everyone else?”

Yukhei rolls his eyes. “Do you not know what street lingo is? I’m looking for crack… snow… coke.”

“You ran out of names?”

Yukhei nods meekly. “But you get the point.”

Mark wants to laugh at Yukhei, but he knows he should keep his professionalism. Or whatever’s left of it, really, because they’ve been openly talking about looking for a dealer in a public space and anyone could’ve heard them. Oh dear. One word out the door about two undercover detectives looking to crack down on drug dealing in college parties and it’s going to be over.

This is a smaller case as compared to an organised crime gang, but the use of hard drugs on campus has gotten increasingly rampant as of late. There’s someone behind pushing mixtures of cocaine and heroin to young, idiotic college brats and it’s caused quite a bit of trouble in the recent weeks.

They’re going to need to catch one rat so they can determine the source of these deals and hopefully put a stop to it.

Maybe they already blew everything by talking so loudly about looking for cocaine in this place.

“Dudes,” Mark hears a third person’s voice coming from a corner.

Both Yukhei and Mark turn their heads to look in that direction so fast that they could’ve gotten whiplash. There’s a boy lying under the large dining table amidst the chairs. How did they not see this kid while they were talking?

Fuck, they’ve blown it.

“You’re like… looking for a good time, yeah?” The boy asks when they approach him slowly. His voice is slurred, and Mark can see that his pupils are dilated up close. He looks high. The pink highlights in his bleached hair don’t do much to help.

Mark feels his breath hitch and he pushes Yukhei to speak. Maybe they can use this to their advantage.

“Do you know someone?” Yukhei questions casually, kneeling next to him. “I’m looking for something… _strong_.”

The boy chuckles, too far gone to realise how suspicious Yukhei sounded when he put emphasis on the word “strong”. “Well… he told me I could only recommend trustworthy friends to him…”

“I’m Jeffrey,” Yukhei says immediately. “And that’s M— Bill. Moon Bill.”

“That’s such an ugly name.”

Mark has never felt such an intense urge to slap someone awake before this kid. How dare he say that Mark’s chosen name of the night is bad? Maybe it isn’t one of the best names out there, but Billy Moon is something Johnny himself gave Taeil, so if it’s good enough for Johnny, it’s good enough for Mark. Johnny is pretty much his idol after all.

Yukhei joins the boy in a series of giggles as they continue making fun of Mark’s name. It’s almost three minutes before Yukhei sees the look Mark is giving him that makes him speed up the conversation. “Now that we both know each other—” They do? Mark must’ve missed the boy’s name. “—why don’t you tell us where we can get the good stuff?”

Does Yukhei even know how lame he sounds right now? The stupid kid isn’t going to—

“He goes by the name of Astro, I think…” The boy replies. How high is he that he isn’t aware of the fact that Yukhei’s pressing him for information? “I last saw him behind the pool…”

“Behind the pool?”

“Yeah, like… behind the bushes or something.”

Mark nods. “Alright,” he speaks for the first time in awhile. He reaches over to pull Yukhei up by the arm. “We’re going to go look for Astro now. Let’s just keep this between us, okay?”

“Keep what between us?” The kid asks, blinking slowly up at the ceiling (or what he thinks is the ceiling but is the underside of the dining table) for a few seconds. “Oh! About the two of you dating? Yeah, of course, your secret’s safe with me… I know how frats are.”

Mark clears his throat, meeting eyes with Yukhei as they both struggle to keep their laughter in. “Yeah, just don’t even mention we were here. That’ll be great.”

The boy nods and Mark quickly pushes Yukhei out one of the sliding doors, slipping into a quieter corner of the backyard.

“That was funny,” Yukhei giggles, walking towards the large swimming pool when he sees it. “Did you see the look on his face when he thought he figured out what we wanted to keep a secret?”

“Of course I did,” Mark responds, slapping Yukhei across the arm lightly as they near the hedges.

There are a few college students lounging around the pool. A few of them have lit blunts held tightly between their fingers and they barely pay Yukhei and Mark any mind.

They see a group of four people settled behind the bushes on a picnic mat just as one of them passes a blunt to the other. They all look up in unison when the two detectives approach. “Who are you looking for?” One of the guys ask.

At first glance, the guy who spoke looks very clean-cut. He has large eyes to a classically handsome face, and he looks like one of the Korean-pop idols Mark often sees on TV nowadays. He must be smoking to get away from the pressures of looking like _that_.

“Have any of you seen a guy who goes by the name Astro?” Yukhei asks, trying to look blasé about the whole thing. Like it doesn’t matter if they tell him or not.

“No,” the handsome college kid immediately replies, taking a long drag from his rolled blunt. “Haven’t heard of him.”

Mark glances towards one of the girls lying on the mat who has her arm resting over her face. “Wait… Cha Eunwoo… don’t you go by Astro, you dick?” She nonchalantly offers. “Oh, wait. Fuck.”

Astro—or Eunwoo—narrows his eyes at her form as he kicks her with one of his feet.

“So you’re Astro?” Yukhei takes a seat next to him, ignoring the way the other two people in the circle look to him warily. “I’m just looking for something I think you can give me.”

Eunwoo laughs dryly. “Really?”

“Really.”

It’s a minute before Eunwoo says anything in return. He nudges his fallen friend with a foot. “Can the three of you assholes get out for a second?”

His friends groan as they get off the picnic mat, the two more-conscious ones supporting the weight of the girl who was previously lying down. “I’m getting 10%,” the other guy says to Eunwoo, clicking his tongue in disapproval when his friend retches in his arms.

Eunwoo doesn’t respond.

“So…” Mark goes to stand next to Eunwoo, unsure if he should sit down. It’s probably for the best that he doesn’t. This way he’ll be able to catch Eunwoo if he tries to run.

“Who are you two anyway?” Eunwoo asks, looking Yukhei up and down before craning his neck upwards to study Mark. “And what do you want from me?”

“I heard that you’ve got the good stuff,” Yukhei starts, but he winces slightly probably in realisation that he sounds like an amateur. “Uh, I mean. I heard you’ve got… _speedball_.”

“Speedball?” Eunwoo laughs. “That’s some strong shit you’re asking for.”

Mark sighs, already tired of this back and forth. He kind of really wants to end this whole conversation and just tackle Eunwoo to the ground to search him. He looks like a college kid anyway, so he’ll probably tell them all he knows after he’s arrested to save a few months in jail.

“Do you have it?” Yukhei presses, his gaze suddenly becoming stronger and less friendly. Mark wants to remind him that he’s undercover because Yukhei’s evidently going into detective mode.

“I don’t play like that,” Eunwoo shakes his head. “It’s green or nothing.”

“But the kid in the kitchen—”

“Pinkish blonde hair?”

Yukhei nods.

“Wait, are you… cops?”

Mark wants to keel over and die. They are. Sort of. He’s not about to blow his own cover, though. This isn’t part of the plan. “Um, no?” He tries, making a face that he hopes expresses his false sense of disbelief. “Uh, _gross_.”

“Gross?”

“Law enforcement is gross.”

Yukhei shoots Mark a look before sighing. “Mark, can you… I don’t know, do what you have to do? I’m going back in.” Yukhei runs off immediately, leaving Mark and Eunwoo.

Mark guesses he can reveal his identity now, because if he didn’t read Yukhei wrongly, Yukhei wants him to search Eunwoo.

“I’m going to be real with you now,” Mark begins, cracking his knuckles. “I _love_ law enforcement.”

 

Unsurprisingly, they don’t close the case that night. The kid in the kitchen made a fool both Yukhei and Mark because he was the one who was dealing the hard drugs. Mark knew it was too good to be true that he didn’t fully pick up what the two detectives were arguing about.

It kind of is their own faults, though, so Mark doesn’t dare to mention it when they’re driving back to Yukhei’s place after a fruitless night of going undercover.

“Okay, so we fucked up,” Mark tries to speak when they enter the penthouse, but Yukhei holds up a hand to stop him. “What? Are you mad at me?”

Well, Mark supposes that he did start the whole mess… He shouldn’t have pulled Yukhei into the kitchen because the college girls were talking to him. If he didn’t guide them into the kitchen, they wouldn’t have had that conversation that gave their identities away in front of their target.

He feels responsible for the failure of tonight’s operation, but should he apologise?

He’ll look weak if he does, though.

But he kind of likes Yukhei, so maybe it won’t be the worst thing to look weak in front of him.

“Huh?” Yukhei mumbles.

“I’m sorry I screwed up,” Mark says, softly, as he collapses onto the couch. He covers his eyes with his forearm because he doesn’t want to see Yukhei’s face as he’s humiliating himself. “I shouldn’t have pulled you away from those girls because I didn’t like them… otherwise we wouldn’t have failed tonight…”

“Huh,” Yukhei mutters once more, and Mark can hear his footsteps padding over to kneel beside him at the couch.

“Can you not look at me right now?”

“Wait a second,” Yukhei reaches over to pull Mark’s arm off his face. “Was Markie Mark _jealous_?” Yukhei’s using a tone that he uses to speak to babies as he mocks Mark.

Mark keeps his eyes shut. “I’m not saying I was, but I didn’t _like_ them.”

Yukhei is silent for a moment. “Do you like me?” He asks after the pause.

Mark sits up, pursing his lips. “We’re literally dating,” he deadpans, moving his fingers to flick Yukhei behind the ear, but the latter grabs his wrist before he can. “Ouch.”

“Do you only ‘ _like_ ’ me?”

“What are you talking about?”

Yukhei smiles at him a little hesitantly. “I mean… do you only ‘like’ _like_ me or… is there… something more behind the ‘like’?”

Mark knows what Yukhei is hinting at. Yukhei’s talking about _love_. He’s asking if Mark loves him. On the same night they just ruined one of their shared operations. Wong Yukhei is trying to get Mark Lee to admit he loves him right after Mark just experienced one of his top three phobias.

And somehow, Mark isn’t too peeved about it. He feels his stomach churn in his abdomen and his throat tightens a bit as he considers the word ‘love’ but otherwise, he’s not that annoyed by it.

This is random, yes, but… huh. Does Yukhei love him?

“What about you?” Mark counters, already knowing his answer to Yukhei’s question at the back of his mind. He’s having trouble vocalising it, though. “Do you… like me, or…”

“Well, I little-more-than- _like_ you.” There’s a playful smile on Yukhei’s lips as he stares into Mark’s eyes. He sticks his tongue out to wet his lips, and Mark instantly knows what he has to do to get out of this little hole he’s found himself in.

“Huh,” Mark mutters, wriggling his wrist out of Yukhei’s grasp so he can cup Yukhei’s face between his hands. “I guess I ‘little-more-than-like’ you too.”

When they kiss, the whole ordeal of their botched operation completely slips Mark’s mind. The only thing Mark is thinking about is how warm Yukhei’s hands feel against his waist, and how he’ll never really tire of kissing his dumb boyfriend.

It doesn’t help that Yukhei always knows what to say.

“I’m going to say it,” Yukhei utters against Mark’s lips before they break apart. He holds Mark by the shoulders so he can look him right in the eyes. “Mark, I love you.”

If Yukhei’s always this smart with words, Mark supposes that it’s only fair if he takes a leaf out of his book. “Okay…” he drawls, hooking one of his fingers into the collar of Yukhei’s t-shirt to pull him closer. Mark doesn’t really want to see the smug look on Yukhei’s face when he says this. “Xuxi… I love you too.”

Before Yukhei can smirk at Mark, Mark quickly closes his eyes and pulls him in for a kiss. It’s funny, though, because Mark can still feel Yukhei smiling against his lips as they kiss, but Yukhei’s pride in this matter is a lot less annoying.

 

* * *

 

When Mark says that they still make pointless bets with each other after having gotten into a relationship, he means it. Their punishments or rewards are all useless things like who has to drive the other to work the next morning, who’s going to get to choose what they’re having for dinner, and even getting to mark up a part on the other person’s body that the person always rejects. See? Pointless bets.

It happens so often that it’s become ingrained into their dynamic.

Mark kind of enjoys it because it gets him fired up about his job and he gets something from Yukhei in exchange if he wins, too. It’s definitely a win-win situation, and the only time he’s less than happy about the bets they make is when he’s the one on the losing end.

Mark’s success rate with the bets are 50-50. Their wins are split quite evenly down the middle, surprisingly, and it’s probably for the best because Mark still hasn’t gotten over his fear of failure and he doesn’t want Yukhei to be upset either. They’re both rather competitive especially when it comes to one another, so a ratio that’s imbalanced would definitely put a strain on their relationship.

Sometimes Mark grits his teeth and lets Yukhei win whenever he can see that Yukhei is _desperate_ for the victory. He recalls some instances of Yukhei deliberately making a blunder of something just so Mark can come out on top, too.

Relationships are about give and take after all.

He’s glad that they have similar outlooks on their situation.

It’s comes to a point where they’ve run out of mundane requests to put on the line, though, and their bets start veering into uncharted territory.

Yukhei bets that if Mark can’t cuff their suspect by the end of the day, he’ll have to adopt a dog with him from the local animal shelter. Mark can’t quite figure out the logistics of dog-rearing (“Child-rearing!” Yukhei had shouted when Mark used the term “dog-rearing” because the _dog_ is supposedly going to be their _child_ ) so he does his best to make sure that he’ll win.

Mark wins the bet, but at what cost?

Their bets only get weirder after that.

Mark doesn’t remember how they got to this point, but Johnny just assigned them a case to follow for the rest of the week and Yukhei’s already bouncing on his feet as he walks over to discuss the case with Mark over at his desk.

“I’m telling you that I know exactly where the target is,” Yukhei insists cockily as he watches Mark flip through the case file. “You don’t have to read that bullshit at all. I can tell you all you need to know based on my instinct and experience.”

“We’re both equally as experienced,” Mark points out. “Which doesn’t equal to much experience at all.”

Yukhei shrugs, shutting the folder and prying it out from between Mark’s fingers. “Trust me,” he enunciates each syllable with emphasis. “I know how we should go about this. Do you want to bet?”

Those five words. “ _Do you want to bet?_ ” will always trigger _something_ in the pit of Mark’s stomach. It’s a challenge, and Mark would look like a coward if he were to back down from it.

Yukhei looks all too smug about having caught onto one of Mark’s weaknesses.

“What do you want to bet?” Mark asks, raising an eyebrow. He knows by the look on Yukhei’s face that it’s something that Yukhei has been planning for awhile now. Probably something that will seriously make Mark suffer or wound his pride.

Why do they continuously hurt each other like this? Mark can’t really say.

Yukhei lets the anticipation linger in the air for a few more moments before he speaks. “If I win, you have to move in with me.”

Mark’s jaw falls open in surprise. “Me? Move in with _you_?”

Yukhei nods.

Mark doesn’t want to sound ungrateful, but Yukhei’s luxury penthouse is a little too much for Mark to just pack up and move into. What will he look like if he carries boxes on boxes over to Yukhei’s place without having to pay rent because Yukhei’s parents own the unit? He’d look like a jobless gold-digger and he’d be the talk of every gossip circle in the precinct and beyond.

Where will he even go in the penthouse if he has a row with Yukhei? (Which is quite often, he can’t just hide from Yukhei is his own home.)

This is a terrible idea, which is why Mark knows he has to counter it.

“If I win,” Mark starts, narrowing his eyes at Yukhei. “ _You_ have to move in with _me_.”

The concept of how they’re just casually throwing around the plan to move in together doesn’t even faze Mark. It’s the last thing on his mind to think about how they’re talking about sharing a living space this lightly. They’ve never discussed it prior to this impending bet, but all Mark can really think about is how he doesn’t want to be the one to lose.

Yukhei obviously feels the exact same way because his jaw tightens after listening to Mark’s retort.

“Why should I move into your dump?” Yukhei argues. “It’s like, barely 500 square feet. That’s tiny.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Rich Boy,” Mark mocks, punching Yukhei in the arm with a measured amount of force. “I’m sorry I don’t have a luxury penthouse with its own private pool. At least I pay my rent.”

Yukhei looks offended by Mark’s comeback. “Oh, it’s _on_ ,” he hisses, pinching Mark’s nose with his thumb and forefinger as he scrunches up his features. “Be prepared to move into my luxury penthouse suite at the end of the day, and don’t bother bringing your swim trunks because we’re going skinny dipping.”

Mark plasters a bewildered expression on his face. “ _Disgusting._ ”

They’ve actually been skinny dipping in Yukhei’s pool before and it wasn’t a terrible experience. But Mark digresses. He likes his own space. He’s not going to acknowledge that Yukhei’s living conditions are more pleasant.

Yukhei’s penthouse is nice, but it’s not _Mark’s_.

“How is this even a mildly exciting bet?” Doyoung interjects, hitting a bunch of rolled up papers against the palm of his hand as he stops walking to address the both of them. “You both win either way because you’ll still end up living together.”

Mark scoffs. “It’s different!” he insists. “The loser has to pack up their things and their _pride_ , Doyoung. It’s humiliating.”

Yukhei nods in agreement. “Yeah, not to mention that moving places is a pain in the ass.”

“Especially if you’re packing up a whole penthouse suite, huh?” Mark teases, reaching out a hand to grab one of Yukhei’s biceps. He gives it a firm squeeze out of habit. “But don’t worry, I’ll help you pack when you have to move out of your place.”

“Why don’t you just find a whole new place together?” Sicheng, who Mark didn’t even know was here to begin with, says from his seat on top of Yuta’s desk. “Do I have to listen to you two argue over your dumb relationship perks every time I come around?”

“You should stop visiting so often, then,” Yukhei mumbles, but he shuts up when Sicheng glares at him.

“Well?”

Mark pales. He’s never considered the idea of both Yukhei and him moving out of their respective places to move into a new one. Along his previous thought process, this whole “moving in together” thing was never in their plans until today. It’s a whole new ball game that they’re stepping into.

It’s a challenge that he’s ready to tackle, but he can be the first one to admit that there’s not much planning, if there is any, involved in whatever they’re doing right now.

The self-satisfied smirk Yukhei has painted on his face is egging Mark on to destroy him, though.

“It doesn’t matter!” Mark says, shooing even Yukhei away from his desk as the exasperation hits him. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Yukhei grins widely, one of his hands coming down to ruffle Mark’s hair. “Alright,” he says lowly, in the same tone that he knows has Mark weak in the knees whenever he uses it. “Be prepared to lose, my love.”

Mark blinks up at Yukhei a few times before smiling at him in a sickly sweet manner. “Oh, Xuxi, you have no idea.”

 

It’s probably for the best that they _both_ lose that day, because Yukhei doesn’t get the felon with just his intellect and Mark doesn’t find anything of substance through the files.

They do, however, discuss moving in together for real this time.

“I’m going to call Daniel,” Mark announces when they’ve made the decision to move into a whole new place so they can both pitch in for rent (“Or the mortgage,” Yukhei had said, but Mark pretended he couldn’t hear him).

“Kang Daniel?” Yukhei hisses, looking scalded.

Mark can only anticipate what Yukhei is about to say next.

“Okay, let’s bet,” Yukhei says, moving swiftly to pull out a case file that he has stuffed into his backpack. He hands it to Mark as he collapses onto the sofa next to him. “This is a cold case from the 1990s. If we manage to crack this case by the end of the month, we’ll go to a different realtor.”

Mark sighs, rolling his eyes. Yukhei is such a big baby sometimes. They’ve talked about everything and it’s been established that Mark was never interested in Daniel, and that Daniel just felt more comfortable divulging information to Mark with no interest to pursue him romantically. And yet, Yukhei still harbours a mild dislike for the man.

This whole idea of working on a cold case together is exciting, though.

Mark’s inclined to take up Yukhei’s challenge.

“And if we don’t, Daniel gets to find us our home _and_ he gets invited to the wedding,” Mark adds, swinging his legs over to rest them on Yukhei’s lap. He cages the taller man in by wrapping his fingers behind his neck as he presses their foreheads together.

Yukhei laughs, his eyes twinkling under the lighting of the living room. “The wedding?” he asks, and the words cause a blush to creep onto Mark’s cheeks.

Mark huffs. “It’s a joke,” he says, feeling Yukhei’s breath ghost over his skin as he breathes. “Bet?”

“Bet,” Yukhei echoes as he presses their lips together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and the fic is finally complete! thank you to everyone who stuck by it throughout the last month. it was an amazing experience to write this, and i’ve come to love each and every character i created. there are things that i would change if given the chance, but i’m happy with how things are overall. i hope you’ve found the journey enjoyable as well!
> 
> twt: [@lucashaeyadwae](http://twitter.com/lucashaeyadwae)

**Author's Note:**

> i split the completed fic into five parts which i will update weekly. this fic is my baby so i hope you enjoy it! i’d love to hear your thoughts.
> 
> twt: [@lucashaeyadwae](http://twitter.com/lucashaeyadwae)


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